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subject: FW: Ponderosa Attachments: City Council Agenda Report for Ponderosa Homes Application 10.6.2015.pdf SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL From: Matt Sullivan [] Provided to the City Council Sent: Tuesday, October 06, 2015 3:03 PM Provided edtrib the ity Count To: Mayor and City Council; Nelson Fialho After Subject: Ponderosa ato OCT O n 6 2015 Dear Mayor, Council, and Nelson, While you weren't on the Council at the time, you have all lived in Pleasanton long enough to remember the Ponderosa Pumpkin Patch referendum. Just in case it's too far in the past I will remind you: A developer friendly Council majority in the 90's approved a massive residential project on the Busch property against the wishes of the residents nearby and many others across town who objected to yet more traffic, sprawl, and overcrowded schools. In those days, growth management was still a viable dream. Well,after the Council approved the project the people rose up -and despite Ponderosa bringing in goons from Chicago to disrupt the citizen signature gathering process (I know this from experience as I went eyeball-to-eyeball with the Ponderosa goons on several occasions) - the people of Pleasanton overturned the Council approval and stopped the project. Like any real estate speculator with deep pockets, Ponderosa played the long game. A couple of years later— after hiring a well-known local development lobbyist - they came back with a new project. This one came with plenty of Christmas presents for the community: a buffer zone for adjacent residents, a school site, affordable senior housing, and a church site. All resident opposition dissolved away with these accommodations and the project was approved. A win-win for the community, right? Wrong! A few more years down the road the school district decided they didn't want to build a school, and— Surprise, Surprise! —Ponderosa built more houses on the school site! Now we hear that the Centerpointe church, who received approval for a temporary "plastic bubble"that has stood for 10 or so years, have decided they want to move. I have heard that they will make a windfall on selling the property back to Ponderosa! I guess churches can be speculators too. And now Ponderosa wants to rezone the property from P&I to residential and build yet again more houses. Call me cynical, but I might think this was the plan all along. But I'm not cynical. I've just been around Pleasanton politics long enough to know who calls the shots in this town. This project was originally approved based on an agreement the developer made with the Council and residents. Ponderosa has been slowly reneging on this agreement over a 15 year period and now want to cash in yet one more time. To add insult to injury,they will be taking away valuable public and institutional zoning sorely needed for public uses. Do the right thing for the community and deny Ponderosa's application for this project. Just once let's make developers live up to theft commitments. Thank you Matt Sullivan Click here to report this email as spam. 1