Excerpt:

DISCUSSION

As required by the City's General Plan and the EIR, the City must prepare a TDM Plan for future development at Alameda Point to help create a transit-oriented community and to mitigate potential impacts from increased automobile traffic.

TDM refers to an array of strategies, measures, and services which, individually or combined into a comprehensive program, creates the envisioned transit-oriented development at Alameda Point; achieves the City of Alameda's General Plan goals to reduce automobile trips, and in particular, targets the reduction of Single Occupant Vehicle (SOV) trips; and mitigates potential traffic impacts. TDM strategies are designed to change travel behavior (when, where, and by what means people travel) by using combinations of incentives, disincentives, and convenient transit services.

Consistent with the General Plan, the performance objectives of the TDM Plan are to reduce peak hour trips generated from Alameda Point, as projected in the EIR, by 10 percent for new residential development and 30 percent for new commercial development.

The EIR requires that all development projects at Alameda Point comply with the TDM Plan as a mitigation measure for the transportation impacts identified in the EIR. Beyond mitigating the potential traffic impacts of Alameda Point development, TDM promotes regional goals that include reducing traffic congestion on the Bay Area's routes of regional significance; reducing the primary source of mobile emissions; improving safety, and thus increasing mobility, for those who bicycle, walk or take public transit; conserving energy; and improving the health of the population by encouraging physically active forms of transportation.

The property owners, residents, and employers of Alameda Point will be required to fund, comply with, and collaboratively manage, monitor and continuously improve upon a TDM program that mitigates traffic impacts as well as improves the quality of life for those who live and work at Alameda Point. The primary components of the draft TDM Plan include: