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21 <br /> <br />development is allowed or to the mix of land uses. Where people are coming from or <br />going to when they travel to Downtown, is largely the same – but how people get to <br />individual sites within the Downtown could be different based on actual development. <br />For this reason, the City has required supplemental traffic analysis from individual <br />projects to evaluate their impact on intersections most likely to have the most project <br />trips to ensure consistency with the DTPP EIR. The project’s traffic study and <br />addendum confirmed that the project is not expected to create any new impacts at <br />previously or newly analyzed intersections. <br /> <br />(f) Appellant’s Contention: The traffic study identified a narrow range of mitigation <br />measures from the DTPP EIR and impacts mitigated by payment of the Traffic <br />Impact Fee (TIF) are inadequate. (Appeal, pp. 11, 15.) <br /> <br />City Response: As discussed in the Initial Study, the DTPP EIR identified <br />significant and unavoidable traffic impacts, and the City Council adopted a Statement of <br />Overriding Considerations finding that the benefits of the DTPP outweighed these <br />impacts. Thus, the principal issue now is whether the potential traffic impacts of the <br />project are within the previously analyzed impacts of the DTPP, or whether there are <br />any new significant impacts or substantial increases in the severity of any previously <br />identified impacts. This standard is not triggered. <br /> <br />The project will contribute traffic to the El Camino Real/Jefferson and <br />Middlefield/Jefferson intersections, exacerbating the existing conditions at these <br />intersections for which the DTPP EIR identified significant and unavoidable impacts. But <br />the project will not be contributing to a “substantial increase in the severity” of the <br />impacts or create new significant impacts at those intersections. (CEQA Guidelines, <br />§ 15162(a).) Rather, the project contributes to the anticipated traffic increases at these <br />intersections, in a manner consistent with what the EIR analyzed. (See Initial Study <br />Checklist, pp. 37-39.) <br /> <br />When a project triggers a significant impact by itself, it is required to mitigate that <br />impact. When trips from a project when combined with trips from other approved, but <br />not yet built, projects trigger an impact the project is required to pay its fair share to <br />mitigate the impact. If an impact is triggered under the cumulative scenario, a project’s <br />contribution to that impact is mitigated by their payment of the Transportation Impact <br />Fee (TIF). The TIF program ensures that new development projects, if they increase <br />traffic, bear a proportionate share of the cost of facilities and improvements designed to <br />reduce the additional traffic impact resulting from the development. The City prepares <br />regular reports to the City Council regarding the source and amount of revenues and <br />the use of TIF funds, and works to ensure that capital improvements and traffic <br />reduction measures are implemented upon the need for the improvements and <br />available funding. The City Council adopted a resolution (15433) that authorized the <br />imposition of TIF fees. This is consistent with General Plan Policies BE-25.6 and BE-38, <br />which seek to ensure that the TIF program provides adequate funding for transportation <br />improvements and calls for review of and updating the TIF program. <br /> <br />8.A. - Page 21