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<br />7A <br /> <br />that hearing was provided to the City Council under separate cover. Attachment 4 of this Page 5 <br />staff report includes these Final EIR comment letters and responses to comments that <br />were deemed to be "new" and were not already responded to in the Final EIR or cases <br />where clarifying information seems to be needed. <br /> <br />One public agency, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), submitted a <br />late letter on the Final EIR. This letter was dated June 20 (the day after the joint <br />hearing) and was not received by the City until June 25. Public agency comments were <br />due by end of business on June 14, which was the last day of a 21-day review period, <br />where only 10 days were legally required. Although under no legal obligation to consider <br />this letter, staff has researched each item and has not found cause to modify any of the <br />analyses conducted for the Costco traffic study and, thus, no new conclusions should <br />be made pertaining to potential traffic impacts as a result of the Caltrans letter. Staff has <br />been in discussion with Caltrans staff to provide them with additional background and <br />context. The Costco traffic study utilizes more accurate and rigorous methods of <br />analysis than typical traffic studies (actual data from other Costcos as opposed to <br />industry standard trip generation rates) in order to best assess traffic volumes <br />associated with the proposed Castea gas station. Caltrans staff indicated that this <br />methodology may not be familiar to their staff. It is also important to note that several <br />comments in the letter are not within Caltrans' purview. The Caltrans letter is included <br />as Attachment 5 to this staff report. <br /> <br />EIR Addendum <br />During the course of preparing responses to the appeal, staff discovered that there was <br />a production error in one part of the Appendices to the Draft EIR. As previously <br />discussed, one of the appellant's concerns is that traffic associated with the Stanford <br />Outpatient clinic project was not accounted for in the traffic analysis; which could <br />possibly result in understatement of potential cut-through traffic on local streets. This <br />issue was addressed in the Final E1R response to comments as well as in the staff <br />presentation at the June 19 joint hearing. As noted, the Stanford Outpatient clinic <br />project, as well as others, was included in the cumulative traffic analysis. Appendix D of <br />the Draft E1R contains the traffic study and technical memos on which the Traffic and <br />Circulation section of the Draft EIR (Section 4.4) is based. The traffic study in Appendix <br />D includes nine technical Attachments (A through I). These attachments provide <br />supporting technical documentation for the analyses that were performed by the traffic <br />engineers. Although the most current and correct version of the traffic study is included <br />in Appendix D, the corresponding set of correct Attachments for the traffic study were <br />not included in Appendix D. The Attachments included in Appendix D of the Draft EIR <br />were for an earlier version of the traffic study that did not include the Stanford project <br />because the planning application for that project came in well after the Costco traffic <br />study was underway. Thus, the Attachments for the earlier traffic study do not make <br />reference to the Stanford Outpatient project. <br /> <br />Lead Agencies are required to include reasonably foreseeable development in the <br />cumulative analysis (CEQA Guidelines Section 15130), as the development is known at <br />the time of the issuance of the Notice of Preparation (NOP). The Stanford application <br />was not complete until after the Costco NOP was issued. Thus, the City was under no <br />obligation to include the Stanford Outpatient project in the cumulative analysis. <br />Nonetheless, staff determined that it was important to respond to and research <br />neighborhood concerns about traffic as thoroughly as possible. The traffic engineers <br />were instructed to add the Stanford project traffic into the cumulative analysis once the <br />results of the Stanford traffic study became available. This added time and expense to <br />