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BACKGROUND The preparation of an EPSP is called for in the City's General Plan and is identified as a priority on the March 2015 City Council Work Plan. A planning process for the Plan Area was initiated as early as 1998, but completion of the plan was deferred in 1999 in order to complete the Bernal Property Specific Plan. More recently, the EPSP Task Force and City staff have worked on developing and refining the EPSP since the summer of 2012. The Task Force originally agreed on a set of six working draft plan alternatives that included a mix of open space, park, industrial, campus office, school, retail, and high- and low-density residential land uses. The original residential components of the six alternatives ranged from 1,000 to 2,279 residential units. In August 2014, after the City Council directed staff and the Task Force to explore plan alternatives that did not include zoning for high-density housing, the Task Force voted to change the "Base Plan" evaluated in the Draft EPSP to include 1,300 residential units with no high-density housing, 1,636,000 square feet of non-residential development, 759 acres of open space, and an elementary school site. City Council confirmed this Base Plan in December 2014 and directed that nine plan alternatives be evaluated in the DEIR on the Draft EPSP, ranging from an alternative allowing for no development to an alternative containing 1,430 single-family and multi-family residential units. The DEIR was published on April 2, 2015, and was followed by three neighborhood meetings to receive input on the Draft EPSP, which were held on the following dates: Sunday, April 12; Thursday, April 23; and Wednesday, April 29, 2015. These neighborhood meetings were widely attended by residents throughout the City, with attendance exceeding 100 persons at all meetings (attendance at the second meeting was approximately 200 persons). Overall, the residents who spoke at the neighborhood meetings expressed opposition to moving forward with the EPSP, due primarily to concerns associated with the ongoing drought, traffic impacts, school capacity, and because the EPSP is not critical to meeting the City's current statewide housing obligations, or Regional Housing Need Allocation (RHNA) requirements. A summary of the neighborhood meetings is attached to this report as Attachment 2. The City Council and staff have also received significant written communication subsequent to the neighborhood meetings, which is available at the Planning Division upon request. DISCUSSION The Draft EPSP, as noted above, is the culmination of a nearly three-year planning process overseen by a 19-member task force (with 2 alternates) intended to establish a land use and circulation pattern that would govern future development in the 1,100-acre plan area. Program 6.1 of the Pleasanton General Plan 2005-2025 states: Prepare a Specific Plan for East Pleasanton as a coordinated effort between property owners, major stakeholders, and the Pleasanton community, including residents of East Pleasanton. Although the General Plan map indicates several types of land use that may be considered in the specific planning process, this General Plan confers no entitlement to any future development of land in East Pleasanton. The current draft Base Plan EPSP would result in substantial new development in the Plan Area and entail an adjustment to the Urban Growth Boundary (UGB), but would Page 2 of 8