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'-2! TLi MENTAL MATERIAL 5'r:widet1 to the City Council After Djstrihutinn to basket S Joanne Hall Date �3 Sent Monday, June 03, 2013 4:38 PM To: Stephen Williams Cc: Brian Dolan; Maria Hoey; Pleasanton City Clerk Subject: RE: Historic Preservation Task Force-City Council Check-In Dear Mr. Williams, Thank you very much for your valuable input regarding the Historic Preservation Task Force presentation. This message acknowledges receipt of your email. Please rest assured that the City Council will have the benefit of your comments. Kind Regards, Joanne Hall Public Information Officer City of Pleasanton From: Stephen Williams [ Sent: Monday, June 03, 2013 4:35 PM To: Mayor and City Council Cc: Stephen Williams Subject: Historic Preservation Task Force - City Council Check-In Mayor Thorne and City Council Members: On Tuesday evening the Historic Preservation Task Force will be presenting to you its current Status Report. While I will be in that audience, I have late-stage Parkinson's Disease, which has adversely affected my speech volume and quality, making it difficult for me to communicate effectively and clearly. I hope, therefore, that the City Council will be able to accept this e-mail as a proxy for my verbal support of the progress made to date by the Historic Preservation Task Force (hereafter referred to as the "Task Force"). I have attended the last five Task Force meetings, and have studied in detail the Pleasanton Downtown Historic Context Statement (a very valuable document, in my opinion). I have also noted the paid articles by Robert Boyd, the latest of which appeared in the May 31st edition of the Pleasanton Weekly. I'll make the following brief comments on the Task Force document: • I general, I agree with the overall recommendations of the Task Force. • I have some reservations about choosing a fixed date for a property to be considered "historic", since such definition would force a periodic re-evaluation of whether additional property types associated with later historic themes (such as post World War II Ranch Houses) should be included. My preference would be for a rolling 50-year time period, as used by the State. • The Task Force has struggled with the definition of"Demolition", and while I don't believe that any case-by-case approach is a fair one, neither is there any obvious one-size-fits-all solution. • I have strong opinions on new building mass. The demolition of the bungalow on Third Street, and its replacement by a 3,235 sq ft"Craftsman-Style" mini-mansion (with an option for a 1,075 sq ft finished second floor), as listed by Mike Carey at a "coming soon" price of$2,248,000, is an example of an overly massive property. This property towers above its single-story neighbors, robbing them of any 1