18.14.070 Traffic Impact Study.
The application for a circulation assessment permit shall be accompanied by a traffic study that is found by the City’s Traffic Engineer to be complete and in compliance with professional standards for such reports. The Planning Commission may request clarification or expansion of any of the material that is submitted. When a traffic study is required in conjunction with environmental review documents mandated by the California Environmental Quality Act, such study shall be prepared by or under the authority of the City.
A. The study shall include, but not be limited to, the following:
1. A description of the project and the existing traffic and circulation setting;
2. For the intersections and roadway segments identified in subsection (C) of this section, an assessment shall be made of:
a. Daily traffic volumes including existing traffic, existing traffic plus projected traffic, and existing traffic plus projected traffic plus project traffic.
b. AM and PM peak hour traffic volumes including existing traffic, existing traffic plus projected traffic, and existing traffic plus projected traffic plus project traffic.
c. For intersections, the AM and PM peak hour level of service and capacity analysis.
3. For development projects where there is an existing use on the project site the study shall determine the actual existing trip generation for the site and shall also determine the average existing trip generation for the site using the trips rates from the ITE “Trip Generation Manual” or, should the existing use of the site not be included in the ITE manual, using trip generation rates as recommended by the City Traffic Engineer.
4. For development projects north of Corte Madera Creek where there is an existing use on the project site and where the projected trip generation would exceed the average PM peak hour trip generation, the traffic study shall include trip mitigation measures, such as Transportation Systems Management (TSM), which would describe how future project trip generation could be managed so that it would be no greater than the average PM peak hour trip generation at the project site. The traffic study and trip generation mitigation measures shall apply to minimize the traffic impacts to the extent feasible, but an exception to the “no greater than the average existing PM peak hour trip generation at the project site” shall be considered for the residential portion of development projects where either:
a. No less than fifteen (15) percent of units are dedicated to very low-income housing and ten (10) percent to low-income housing and twenty-five (25) percent to moderate-income housing; or
b. Fifty (50) percent of units are dedicated to senior/disabled housing.
5. Projections of future levels of service shall be conducted assuming existing roadway geometrics and also accounting for those traffic and circulation system improvements as shown on the programmed transportation system improvements list.
B. The report shall be appended with the total listings of traffic counts and the intersection capacity worksheets.
C. Scope. The report shall address all of the intersections and roadways of the City’s primary circulation system for which the project is expected to increase the existing peak hour traffic volumes of any approach or segment by one percent of existing traffic volumes or by ten (10) cars, whichever is less. The City shall determine the scope.
D. Methodology. The methodology to be used in the traffic study shall be that set by the City. (Ord. 1030 § 2(12), 2018; Ord. 939 § 1, 2004; Ord. 838 § 1 (part), 1992)