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creation of new, related businesses. Startups, small businesses, medium firms, and large firms in Pleasanton all increased in employment by 23 to 29 percent from 1995 to 2009. Pleasanton's businesses identified communications and outreach as important activities for business recruitment and retention. According to Pleasanton's 2013 business retention survey, business leaders rated Pleasanton well as a place to do business overall, but also identified outreach and communications as an important area for continued improvement. In particular, businesses identified business visits and provision of website content on business support programs, events, and opportunities as potential techniques for enhanced outreach and communication. Built Environment and Workforce The following are findings regarding Pleasanton's strengths and weaknesses as a location for businesses, exploring the built environment, infrastructure, and housing and transportation options for workers as well as the City's approval processes. The city provides excellent accessibility to a diverse, well-educated labor market and broader Bay Area market. Pleasanton's location provides access to workers throughout the region — especially the East Bay and the Silicon Valley—via the I-580 and I-680 freeways, as well as offering commute options via BART and ACE trains. This accessibility allows for mobility of goods and workers, which is a primary consideration for employers. The city's housing stock is dominated by single-family homes in traditional neighborhood settings, which may be a potential barrier to attracting talented workers. About 64 percent of Pleasanton's housing stock is single-family detached, but about half of households are small (1-2 persons). Increasing the diversity of housing products, as well as providing high-quality multi-family housing near employment centers and amenities, will help make Pleasanton a more attractive location for smaller and younger households. The city's employment centers offer high-value commercial space for a variety of businesses. Pleasanton offers high-quality business districts with diverse types and sizes of Class A office, Class B office, and flex space, often with supporting amenities and infrastructure. Office space in Pleasanton is generally competitive with the Tri-Valley, but much lower cost than other central Bay Area locations that offer similar types of office products, like San Jose and Oakland. This ability to offer high-quality space at a lower cost is an important asset to businesses across a range of industry sectors. Pleasanton's existing employment centers are aging and generally inconsistent with evolving worker preferences for mixed-use,walkable environments. Research shows that an increasing number of workers — especially the younger Generation X and Generation Y workers — prefer working in walkable, mixed-use districts and are more likely to use transit to get to work. These districts are also preferred by innovation industries that benefit from information-sharing and knowledge-spillover that occurs in these types of environments. However, most of the existing employment centers in Pleasanton are largely single-use suburban campuses with a high level of automobile dependency. As the city continues to mature, more of the opportunities to accommodate new employment growth will occur in these existing centers, many of which will require repositioning, redevelopment, and revitalization to remain competitive. Some of the city's employment centers require infrastructure upgrades. According to the Pleasanton business survey, businesses find that the city's existing infrastructure is less than satisfactory, citing poor local transit options, inadequate cellular phone networks, and inconsistent high-speed interne access in some locations. Additionally, businesses with adequate access to high speed fiber optic network trunk Pleasanton Economic Strategic Plan DRAFT -7-