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residents who live here but all Pleasanton residents with bike trails and walking lakes. <br /> She encouraged the Commission to treat this prime spot like a treasure and spend the <br /> time to look at where else a balance can be created across the City. <br /> Julie Testa stated that she has been attending the East Pleasanton Specific Plan Task <br /> Force meetings, and her message is that, while it is a great opportunity to create a new <br /> part of our community, everything should be done to mitigate potential traffic or any <br /> other quality-of-life issue so that there not be any financial burden on the existing <br /> community through additional taxes that might be asked later to mitigate any future <br /> impacts. She pointed out that one of the things mentioned was moving the PGS <br /> Transfer Station, and stated that the cost of the move should not fall to the ratepayers. <br /> Ms. Testa stated that she does not think there has been proper acknowledgment of the <br /> overcrowding in the existing schools. She indicated that it has been a long 20-year <br /> mantra of hers to mitigate the overcrowding in schools, which has continued to grow <br /> and develop. She noted that PUSD has tried to downplay the severity of the situation in <br /> the community, and it says it may not even feel the need for another elementary school <br /> in the area when the reality is that every school in the District is significantly <br /> over-capacity, even prior to the approval of the 3,000 units in the rezoned sites. She <br /> indicated that even one elementary school would not come close to offsetting and <br /> correcting the burden of overcrowding that already exists in the schools because the <br /> greatest burden of overcrowding is at the high schools, where there no thought or <br /> possibility or opportunity of adding additional space. <br /> Ms. Testa stated that in 2011, PUSD put out a school facilities fee justification report <br /> which says that the District's current projected enrollment is larger than the pupil <br /> capacity, which means that based on State classroom counts, the District, therefore, <br /> does not have sufficient capacity to house students generated by future development. <br /> She noted that these students will require the District to acquire new school facilities, <br /> and PUSD is saying it is not sure it wants to build another school. She indicated that <br /> what the community needs to fully understand that this will impact not only the nearby <br /> neighborhood but the entire City of Pleasanton, everybody who cares about the schools <br /> and about property values, because this will have a serious negative impact on traffic <br /> and commuting to schools as well as on the value of and quality of life at these schools. <br /> She added that current residents will be asked to pay additional bonds and taxes to <br /> offset this, once things hit critical conditions. <br /> Ms. Testa stated that the 2011 report says that PUSD has 1,847 un-housed students, <br /> that its student-classroom ratio is at 118 percent over capacity, but what it is not saying <br /> is that the situation is so much worse at the student-land ratio, which, for Amador High <br /> School, for example, is at 160 percent over capacity today. She indicated that she <br /> understands the RHNA numbers; she understands that the District is an independent <br /> body and that there is limited authority to tell the District what to do, but the Planning <br /> Commission has the General Plan, its guideline, which spells out the expectation and <br /> the quality of life for the City's schools and specifically calls out school size. She <br /> pointed out that it is the Commission's responsibility to not be like ostriches with their <br /> EXCERPT: PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES, May 22, 2013 Page 14 of 30 <br />