11 ATTACHMENTS 02-04 - Laserfiche WebLink

DRAFT are other concerns they have. He asked the Commissioners to consider all of Pleasanton and have the high-density housing evenly distributed. He agreed that East Pleasanton has the most open land, but the entire burden should not be put in a localized area. Ashish Ahluwalia stated that he and his family moved to Pleasanton 6 '/ years ago because Pleasanton had the community feeling they wanted to have. He stated that they drove around and saw the nice neighborhoods and said this is where they want to bring up their two kids. He indicated that their younger child goes to middle school and the older one goes to high school. He stated that he does not want to talk about the school situation as everyone already knows about that, but he would like to say that his point is about balance. He stated that his neighbors and friends have talked about this multi-unit development and the requirement that the City needs to meet. He indicated that he knows Danville is also fighting that requirement, so he encourages that both become as one community and fight this requirement as much as possible, but at the same time have a balanced approach looking at the entire Pleasanton as a city and not just looking at East Pleasanton. He noted that it was mentioned that going through the East Pleasanton neighborhood should not look like it the multi-family units are concentrated in one area, and he would like to extend that same thought to the entire Pleasanton, such that when he drives through Pleasanton, he should not see only multi-unit homes concentrated in one area. He requested the Planning Commission to consider that. Mr. Ahluwalia stated that he has similar concerns that his neighbors and friends have already mentioned, the biggest of which is traffic. He recalled that when the Ironwood community was approved, people living on the north side objected to their community saying it would increase the traffic on Mohr Avenue, even though now their community has two parts, Ironwood Classics and Ironwood Estates, and Ironwood Classics cannot use Mohr Avenue even though some of the children go to Mohr Elementary School and have to go around because there are blocks in the middle of the road. He questioned the Planning experts about how 2,000 homes cannot create a traffic problem on Stanley Blvd. and Valley Avenue if the 100+ homes in the Ironwood Classics create a traffic problem. Mr. Ahluwalia stated that schools is a very big concern for him and for everyone else. He noted that as Ms. Testa mentioned, people live here because they have children and want good schools, such that even if he has to drive 42 miles to work in Palo Alto, he prefers living here because it is a good community and the schools are good. He noted that everyone knows the budget is shrinking as class sizes are increasing, and with the 2,000 homes here plus another 500 approved somewhere else and with no plan to increase school funding, the Pleasanton that was envisioned before will be lost; it may become like Dublin, and no one wants that to happen to Pleasanton. He stated that he and his wife are looking at more houses here so they can retire here, and if these are the kinds of developments that will happen, he thinks that they will have to move out of here. DRAFT EXCERPT: PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES, 9/25/2013 Page 15 of 28