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MINUTES CITY OF PLEASANTON SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING November 27, 2012 1. CALL TO ORDER Mayor Hosterman called the special meeting to order at the hour of 6:00 p.m. 2. ROLL CALL Present: Councilmembers Cook-Kallio, McGovern, Sullivan, Thorne, Mayor Hosterman Absent: None 3. PUBLIC COMMENT: None 4. Consider the implementation options of Measure PP provisions related to the development of hillside areas within the City of Pleasanton Community Development Director Dolan presented the staff report. He advised the Council that the direction provided this evening would return to the Council in the form of an addition to the Zoning Ordinance, which would ultimately be passed by the subsequent Council. Measure PP, which was passed by the Pleasanton voters in November 2008, contains provisions that prohibit grading for the purposes of constructing residential or commercial structures on hillsides with slopes of 25% or more or within 100 vertical feet of a ridgeline. The primary challenges in implementing the directive relate to how slope is measured, identification of the point from which a ridgeline is measured and whether these limitations apply to streets, roadways or manmade slopes. Mr. Dolan noted that certain developments whose proposals were for ten or fewer housing units and predate the approval of Measure PP, are exempt from these provisions. He also noted that in addition to the provisions of PP, the General Plan and City's own environmental review as well as certain state and federal regulations provide protection of environmental resources and in some cases might actually go beyond the limitations of PP. Mr. Dolan presented the Council with several options for determining slope, the current definition of which is general and widely accepted but does not delve into the mechanics of measurement. Slope is the ratio of rise (height) over run (distance) for a particular segment of land. A 25% slope consists of a 25-foot rise over a 100-foot run and is equivalent to a 14-degree angle. In determining slope, one can measure the real slope as a specific value based on the distance between contour lines on a topographical map. An alternative method that has been the practice of many jurisdictions including Pleasanton, is to calculate an average slope value over the entire site. Using the latter would likely result in a slight increase in developable land, some of which might actually exceed 25%. Staff's position is that for the purposes of PP, using real slope to determine the developable footprint would be most appropriate. A sub issue of slope determination relates to contour intervals, which reflect the actual change in elevation represented by the space between adjacent topographic rings and differ based on the size map that is used. Staff has proposed that the Council consider using 2, 5 or 10-foot contour intervals. Staff conducted several tests on real sites in Pleasanton to determine the effect of each alternative, found the differences to be negligible and therefore is supportive of implementing I,he most conservative 2-foot option.