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the task force has not provided enough clear guidance for a plan to be designed and a project approved within one year. He advised that some members of the public may be misreading State housing statutes which include numerous limitations on the City's ability to arbitrarily condition, deny, or delay attached housing development. He noted that Pleasanton has not built any market rate apartments since 1997, despite a huge demand for most of that period. BRE is an experienced apartment builder and is ready to meet all reasonable concerns of the City and neighbors, but only if provided with reasonable guidelines within a reasonable time frame. Without a timely answer, BRE would be forced to proceed with its vested office entitlements. He noted that the residential homeowners, which make up only 15% of the total business park, have been given more representation than developed business interest and asked that this be balanced by appointing two additional representatives from the park owners' association. He concurred with staff that the appointed representatives from the park's two apartment residences ought to be tenants. He advised that the task force role should be limited to providing feedback on what is ultimately a city plan, stating that these appointments consist primarily of citizens, not professional planners or financial analysts. He suggested that some members may be more focused on preventing TOD under any circumstances, creating a split committee design, and advised touchback points with both the City Council and Planning Commission throughout the process. Mr. MacDonald supported a PUD modification conducted by professional planning staff under the control of the City Manager, the end result of which would be a coherent, high quality TOD everyone could be proud of. James Paxson, Hacienda Business Park, said he is pleased with the opportunity to move forward with this process, acknowledged staff's efforts to balance the interests of everyone concerned and assured the community that the constructive concerns voiced are a very important part of the process. He advised that there is also value in constructive support and requested that those comments be given considerable weight, as well. He recommended that BART, as the landowner of the property around which these projects are to be planned, be appointed directly to the task force. He said they have a great deal of experience with this type of planning as well as the ability to attract funding. In response to the concerns of Councilmembers McGovern and Sullivan, he said it would be misconstrued to say that the park would like its design guidelines and development plan rebuilt from scratch; but that there may be some changes to those that come about as a result of this process. John Rennels, BART, commended staff on an outstanding report. He said there is considerable national interest in creating high quality TOD and cited the Urban Land Institute's fall conference and a recent article in the Bay Area News Group as examples. He quoted Paula Downey, CSAA President, as stating that the company's new location at the Pleasant Hill transit village is one of the last spaces near a BART station that was available," and, "We too think that good quality TOD adjacent to BART is a good thing for the adjacent community and the taxpayers who have paid for the transit system." He referenced the staff report, noting that it specifically indicates BART properties should be examined for retail opportunities and he concurred with Mr. Paxson that it deserves an appointment to the task force. He said that BART's expertise would bring value added discussion as well as opportunities for financing that are so critical for implementing a project like this. He reported that BART's Pleasant Hill project received the single largest funding from the California Debt Limit Allocation Committee of $135 million. Becky Dennis said it is important to realize that Pleasanton is undertaking this process in order to comply with state housing laws. She advised people to consider how Pleasanton will catch up City Council Minutes Page 7 of 21 November 3, 2009