REPORT TO COUNCIL
SUBJECT
Title
Selection of a Configuration of the Mary Avenue Overcrossing to be Defined as the Proposed Project in an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA); Approve Budget Modification No. 21 in the Amount of $273,092 from the Transportation Impact Fee funds; and Increase the Kimley-Horn and Associates contract from $666,550 to $914,815.
Report
REPORT IN BRIEF
The Mary Avenue Overcrossing project to extend Mary Avenue north from Almanor Avenue over U.S. 101 and State Route 237 to 11th Avenue at Discovery Way in Moffett Park has been included in multiple city planning and policy documents over the years. The project requires an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) adhering to California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requirements to move forward. The EIR will analyze various environmental impacts that the project may have on the surrounding community and transportation network.
The current planning process was started in 2016, with a scope based on community stakeholder input received at that time, which envisioned the EIR analyzing five different configurations as potential "projects". However, in 2017, a California appellate court opinion (Washoe Meadows Community v. Department of Parks and Recreation (2017) 17 Cal.App.5th 277 rejected the concept of multiple "projects" for purposes of the EIR analysis. Instead, CEQA requires a single definition of the proposed "Project." Other potential options can be compared and evaluated as Project "alternatives."
In addition to selecting a Project description for purposes of the CEQA analysis in the EIR, additional consultant scope is necessary to move the environmental review forward. This scope consists of: additional public outreach, updating the traffic analysis growth projections, revising the traffic analysis to consider vehicle miles traveled (VMT) as a metric for CEQA analysis of traffic impacts instead of level of service (LOS), performing L...
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