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Law Offices of Stuart M. Flashman Oakland,CA 94618-1533 ( May 6, 2013 Pleasanton City Council Pleasanton City Hall 200 Old Bernal Ave. Pleasanton, CA 94566 RE: Second Reading and Adoption of Draft Municipal Code Chapter 18.70 Dear Mayor and Council Members, I am writing on behalf of The Ridge & Hillside Protection Association, an unincorporated association of Pleasanton residents and taxpayers, to object to the City's proposed adoption on second reading of a Municipal Code Amendment purporting to implement the Save Pleasanton's Hills & Housing Cap Initiaitive, Measure PP. In the guise of implementing the measure, the proposed ordinance actually attempts to modify and amend the measure without a vote of the people of Pleasanton. This would violate Article II Section 11 of the California Constitution as well as Elections Code §9217. Measure PP stated as its purpose, "to protect our city from uncontrolled growth and the impact it has on our riddelines and hillsides, traffic, schools, water supply and our overall quality of life." [emphasis added]. Measure PP states that, "Housing units and structures shall not be placed on slopes of 25% or greater, or within 100 vertical feet of a ridgeline." [emphasis added.] In its proposed municipal code amendment, the City proposes to modify Measure PP in two ways: 1) truncating a ridge at the last peak at each end of the ridge, and 2) eliminating roadways as structures. Both these changes attempt to reduce the scope of Measure PP without first having those changes considered and approved by Pleasanton voters. City staff argues that these are not amendments, but only clarifications of ambiguities in the measure. Staff argues that the clearest way to define a ridge is to end it at the last peak at each end. Staff also argues that roadways are riot structures, but "infrastructure". However, at the time Measure PP was placed before the voters and enacted, the voters had a common understanding of the terms ridge and structure. Those understanding included that a ridge would generally extend beyond the last peak on the ridge and that structures included roadways. These understandings can be seen from several aspects. Taking first the definition of ridge, as staff acknowledges, prior to the enactment of Measure PP, the Municipal Code already defined ridge as, " a connected series of major and minor hills", and a ridgeline as "a ground line located at the highest elevation of the ridge running parallel to the long axis of the ridge." Both definitions are in Chapter 18.76 (Hillside Planned Development District). Staff argues that for purposes of Measure PP, a more precise location of where a ridge ends is needed. It goes on to argue that because the last peak along a ridge is easy to identify, that's the appropriate place to end the ridge. Yet the interpretation that would lead to absurd results should be avoided. This definition says that once a ridge begins to descend, it immediately ends. An extreme example shows the definition's absurdity.