AgdaPkt 2013-03-11 - Laserfiche WebLink

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7.A. - Page 402 progress. He noted the response talking about the trees and suggested donating the trees that Costco would be losing. Commissioner Bondonno appreciated Commissioner White's concern about exhaust and idle time. He stated traffic has always been bad in this area and would like to see Costco or anyone else in that area work with the City and Caltrans to find solutions. He asked if this expansion would create any new demand. He asked about the amount of net new demand and how significant that might even be. He stated he doesn't have the data to say whether there will or will not be, but it seems that there is no correlation between the number of pumps and overall net new trips, or demand. He stated demand would increase things like traffic but demand would not necessarily significantly increase in this case. He noted that offering that service at a faster rate would not necessarily increase the demand and there has been no evidence that it would. Vice Chair Holt noted that in the EIR assumption of 16 stations the net new trips was 60, but with 12 pumps the actuality is 60 new trips, so perhaps that is the demand balance. Commissioner Bondonno stated that whether there are 8 or 50 pumps, the net new amount of trips might not be different. He stated the increase in traffic has already been incurred by having any gas pumps at all, regardless of how many there are. He stated that until someone can refute that, it seems there is no correlation there. Commissioner Borgens asked Commissioner Bondonno what might increase that demand. Commissioner Bondonno replied growth in the City in general. Commissioner Borgens asked what Commissioner Bondonno thinks would cause greater traffic and consumers to come to the Costco side as a member to purchase their product. Commissioner Bondonno replied that potentially a new product that creates a new market, which would have a net new demand. He noted that Costco does not currently dispense diesel fuel and if it were added that would increase demand. Commissioner Borgens asked if cost of product would factor into that. Commissioner Bondonno replied yes, but that market will happen regardless of how quickly it is supplied. Commissioner White stated that as a Costco customer he has made a decision to get gas at Costco, and what often dictates when he gets gas is dependent on peak times. He stated the longer queue times could shift the demand to a different off-peak time, which can be beneficial on traffic in this area. Mr. Carter stated the CEQA document found a benefit in decrease queuing. As it relates to long-term traffic impacts, that was evaluated in Chapter 6 based on the General Plan 2030 projections and at that point it was identified that the contribution of the project would further decrease the level of service as any addition of any vehicles to the roadway system would. He stated that because of that the applicant would be required to contribute to traffic improvement program. He noted that some of these things just cannot be known; they can only make their best estimates. He stated this could be Page 10 of 21