AgdaPkt 2015-09-28 Joint SA PFA - Laserfiche WebLink

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Build-out under the MAD Caps would only account for a water demand of 448 acre- feet/year, or 3.6% of the City’s total water guarantee from SFPUC. Additionally, as explained in the Public Works Memorandum, “actual water usage of downtown development projects that have been constructed is 40% less than the original water usage projections” of the DTPP.” Thus, the City has sufficient water supplies for the Project, and the new information cited by Appellants does not include evidence of a new significant impact or increase in severity of a preexisting impact. viii. The Project Will Not Create Traffic Impacts that Require an EIR. Appellants’ Contention: The DTPP EIR identified significant and unavoidable traffic impacts. The City Council acknowledged these impacts but adopted a Statement of Overriding Considerations. Project will result in more severe traffic impacts. The City cannot rely on the DTPP EIR or the associated Statement of Overriding Considerations, pursuant to Public Resources Code section 21094(a)(2), including because the EIR is more than three years old. The Applicant’s consultant, Fehr & Peers, prepared a Traffic Impact Analysis (TIA), which found that the Project will “’further exacerbate’” traffic impacts, particularly at the El Camino Real/Jefferson and Middlefield/Jefferson intersections. Thus, a new EIR and a new Statement of Overriding Conditions are required. (J&S Management Appeal-July 22, 2015, p. 2 and June 10, 2015, pp. 22-24.) City’s Response: As discussed in the Initial Study, the DTPP EIR identified significant and unavoidable traffic impacts, and the City Council adopted a Statement of Overriding Considerations finding that the benefits of the DTPP outweighed these impacts. Thus, the issue now is whether the potential traffic impacts of the 601 Marshall Street Project are within the previously analyzed impacts of the DTPP, or whether there are any new significant impacts or substantial increases in the severity of any previously identified impacts. This standard is not triggered. The Project will contribute traffic to the El Camino Real/Jefferson and Middlefield/Jefferson intersections, exacerbating the existing conditions at these intersections for which the DTPP EIR identified significant and unavoidable impacts. But the Project will not be contributing to a “substantial increase in the severity” of the impact to that intersection. (CEQA Guidelines, § 15162(a), emphasis added.) Rather, it simply contributes to the anticipated traffic increases at these intersections which falls within what the EIR analyzed. (See Initial Study Checklist, pp. 37-39.) Moreover, as expected when the City Council adopted the DTPP, traffic has increased in the downtown area in the last five years, including from implementation of the DTPP 7.A. - Page 28