CCMIN061813 - Laserfiche WebLink

• She asked that staff look into creative cost-neutral solutions to relocate the PGS site; • A potential school site should be identified as part of the plan. As a teacher, parent and Chair of the liaison committee with the school district, she said she understands the difficulty in reconciling the state's goals with the available funding. She said that while the number of students they would need to accommodate and therefore what site would ultimately be suitable is still unknown, waiting to identify suitable sites diminishes the city's ability to acquire them; • Busch Road and Boulder Street should conned through to El Charro; • RHNA accommodations should be dispersed throughout the city's entire planning area With regards to RHNA, she said the Housing Element Task Force has consistently expressed a desire to disperse the low and very-low income units throughout the City. She thought that the staff report's varied focus on both total RHNA and the lower income RHNA units could be confusing the discussion for some and suggested that it would be helpful to include a City map that shows the current high density allocations. She asked and staff confirmed that the total RHNA assignment includes both lower income and market rate units. She acknowledged that meeting these RHNA allocations are not always conducive to the type of well-planned community people might otherwise like, but also conceded that they are in large part a result of Pleasanton's vibrant business community like Ms. Dennis alluded to earlier. Mr. Dolan confirmed that jobs do generate housing need but reminded everyone that industrial uses are not always job intensive. Vice-Mayor Cook-Kallio said that while she certainly has no desire to make the community less desirable, the fact remains that they must plan for the future. With regards to alternatives, she said Alternative 1, and likely Alternatives 2 and 3 fail to meet the direction given by the Housing Element Task Force and City Council with regards to dispersing high density development throughout the community as a whole. She recognized that a specific plan as a planning document is not necessarily indicative of exactly what the community would look like. She said she would prefer to examine a higher density, with the understanding that it is a worst case scenario only and not the preferred option. She said she favored Alternative 5 at this time and would like to see Alternatives 4, 5 and 6 explored further. She referred to her earlier comments regarding newer urban design methods that focus on a smaller central park area surrounded by high-density units that feather out to multi-family and single family homes, all with a compact area of 1 square mile. She asked if there are any viable examples of this sort of design on the west coast and whether it has been considered as an option. Mr. Dolan so it could be viable but that they are not at the step where they would start to address urban forms and mixed uses. Councilmember Pentin responded to the questions posed by staff as follows: • He firmly believes that development should bear the cost of infrastructure. He did however express concern over whether that cost would be prohibitive enough to lead to a lawsuit. He requested some sort of nexus study to show what the level of investment would be based on different use and density scenarios; • El Charro Road should be connected to Stanley, preferably not phased-in the same manner as the Stoneridge Drive extension. He said he would like to see more discussion on traffic impacts and therefore infrastructure needs of the different alternatives; • He noted that Policies 22.1, 22.2, 22.3, 22.4 and 22.5 of the General Plan all mention that development beyond the Urban Growth Boundary would need to be put to the voters, though Policy 22.6 specifically excludes the east side from that requirement. He assured the public that no one is a pushing an agenda to keep this from the voters and said he would like an opinion from the City Attorney; • A public school site should be identified, though it does little to address existing impacts. He said he would like the school district to weigh in on any plan that ultimately comes forward; City Council Minutes Page 10 of 13 June 18, 2013