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7A Page 108 ^ Pedestrian and bicycle circulation and facilities ^ Noise and other land use compatibility relationships ^ Use regulations (e.g. banks on Downtown Core Streets) ^ Public review process Since October, Planning staff has been documenting, categorizing, and studying these Plan related concerns and comments. Staff spoke to consultants for additional technical support when needed. These issues are discussed one-by-one in more detail in Attachmer't B ("Issue Matrix"). The matrix includes an analysis and staff recommendations pertaining to each topic. Please refer to that document for more detail. Staff is recommending some changes to the Draft DPP based on these analyses, as will be discussed later in this staff report. This staff report and attachments are a response to all of the significant comments made on the project at the public hearings and in writing. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT A Draft EIR for the Draft Downtown Precise Plan was prepared per the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The Draft E1R identified potentially significant environmental impacts in the following areas: population and housing, transportation and circulation, aesthetics and visual resources, cultural and historic resources, public services, utilities and infrastructure, noise, air quality, biological resources, and geology and soils. All of these impacts can be mitigafed to less-than-significant levels except for transportation and circulation, and long-term air emissions. The City Council will eventually need to adopt findings and a "Statement of Overriding Considerations" for these few impacts if it approves the Draft DPP. a The 45-day public review period for the EIR was held from November 7 through December 22. Following the public review period, staff forwarded all the comments to the EIR consultant who then wrote "responses to comments". The Draft EIR, together with the received comments (written or oral), list of persons and agencies commenting on the EIR, the response to comments, and appropriate text revisions to the Draft EIR, are all considered to be part of the "Final EIR". It is this "Final EIR" that the Planning Commission must certify at its meeting. The Final EiR includes several key findings. They are: ^ In general, the "Moderate Intensity" alternative is environmentally superior to the other alternatives because it would result in the least adverse combination of environmental impacts. This alternative would result in the lowest degree of quantitative impacts, would not result in any additional significant 3The Planning Commission is the City's EIR approving body. The Statement of Overriding Considerations is a statement of reasons, or findings, that describe why the benefits of the project outweigh the significant unavoidable impacts outlined in the EIR. Both findings and the Statement of Overriding Considerations will have to be made by City Council before it can approve the Precise Plan.