Last week the city released a phase-two report that evaluates transportation issues and traffic impacts that would be associated with the development within Alameda Point boundaries and other key locations within Alameda. The report provides a list of what city staff calls "transportation demand management (TDM) strategies" that would help reduce vehicle trips that development at Alameda Point would generate.

SunCal submitted its Alameda Point Revitalization Initiative to the city on March 26. In the document, SunCal laid out a large-scale, mixed-use, transit-oriented development.

According to the report, SunCal's initiative does not commit to any specific TDM strategies. Instead, it proposes a broader range of strategies that focuses on promoting alternative modes of transportation like shuttles, bus and ferry transit, bicycles and walking. In their report, city staff members say that they used their best professional judgment to identify strategies that the city could incorporate into the project based on funding constraints identified in SunCal's initiative.

Rather than relying on SunCal's transportation plans, city staff members say that strategies might include increasing the frequency of busses and ferries, exclusive bus rapid transit lanes and providing additional incentives for employers for transit use for their employees.

SunCal anticipates that once it completely builds the project, the development's property and business owners would fund the operation and management of any TDM strategies ultimately put in place.

The report states, however, that SunCal's initiative does not commit to a specific TDM strategy because the developer anticipates that the future environmental impact report process would help identify a strategy. SunCal cannot guarantee which specific TDM strategies it would include as part of the development until the EIR is complete.

City staff points out that before conducting a traffic analysis for the EIR, more definitive land uses need to be identified, especially for specific non-residential uses like retail, services and schools. Based on the assumed land-use mix, SunCal's initiative conflicts with the existing General Plan by proposing 38 percent fewer retail jobs and 55 percent fewer manufacturing jobs. On the other hand, the initiative recommends 73 percent more service jobs than the city's General Plan.

According the report, SunCal deletes the General Plan policy to construct a landscaped corridor for transit, busses and pedestrians along Ralph Appezzato Memorial Parkway. "The inclusion of this corridor may increase traffic diversion to alternative transportation modes considered under the TDM program and therefore reduce traffic impacts associated with the development," the report says.

SunCal's initiative proposes a single project-level EIR for the full development. The report would include several development phases not yet identified. "Since traffic and transportation impacts are directly related to the land-use mix, it is important that any project EIR analyze the traffic impacts of each proposed phase," the staff reports says.

However, it remains unclear whether details of future phases would be available when the EIR is being prepared, limiting a project-level EIR analysis to only those phases clearly defined in terms of land uses and TDM strategies. A project-level EIR could be conducted only when details of future phases become available.