Sonoma’s Planning Director confirms a flaw in Napa St. hotel EIR

Sonoma’s Planning Director David Goodison confirmed today that traffic issues raised by the public have indeed identified a flaw in the “left-turn warrant” analysis performed by the traffic engineer for the proposed 62-room hotel project on Napa Street.

In his memorandum, Goodison notes, “it only accounts for trips generated by the hotel and does not include the seven apartment units in the Lynch building or the employee parking associated with the Lynch Building and the IT building. This was obviously an error on the part of the traffic engineer who prepared the analysis.”

Goodison outlined the actions being taken to address the issue:

“1. A corrected left-turn warrant analysis will be prepared, addressing two scenarios: 1) use of hotel parking only; and 2) use of hotel parking and maximum use (25 parking spaces) of the off-site lot at 136 West Napa Street. The warrant analysis will be accompanied by a memo reviewing the assumptions behind the numbers and addressing whether the use of the off-site parking lot raised any other traffic-related issues.

2. The warrant analysis will be peer-reviewed by the CHS Consulting Group, a transportation planning and engineering firm with offices in Santa Rosa and San Francisco.

3. Once the peer review is complete and any resulting adjustments are made, the traffic engineer will review the updated warrant analysis with Caltrans and obtain their comments.”

The result of this may be the need to prepare and circulate a supplement to the EIR. He further notes that staff anticipates the EIR will be brought to the Planning Commission at a public hearing in February, at a date not specified at this time.