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Commissioner Pearce stated that she is in the Task Force and that she has the Historic <br />Context Statement in front of her. She noted that there was a statement made earlier <br />that the Historic Context Statement was a series of criteria. She explained that it is not <br />actually that; it certainly talks about the national criteria and the state criteria, but the <br />purpose was the identification of the City's historic resources. She added that the <br />reason the City spent $25,000 to do this is because the Task Force is tasked with <br />developing more appropriate criteria for preservation of historic structures in the City, <br />and the way the Task Force decided to go about doing this was to ascertain what <br />periods of history are important to the City of Pleasanton and extrapolate City values <br />from that. She indicated that the Task Force is in the middle of this process, and that is <br />the reason she asked the question about whether or not this project is time - sensitive. <br />Commissioner Pearce continued that the Task Force was formed by the City Council <br />because the criteria in place no longer made any sense to this City. She noted that she <br />does not care if somebody important lived there or if something important happened <br />there; she cares about whether or not it is important to the City. She reiterated that the <br />Task Force is in the middle of this process, and she is not inclined to make a decision <br />about the demolition of a house at this time because she does not know what the Task <br />Force is going to do. She added, however, that if the applicant really needs to go <br />forward with this, she is inclined to be more conservative and promote the preservation <br />of this structure because she certainly does not want to say it can be demolished only to <br />have the Task Force come back when it has completed its mission and say that this <br />would have been something the City would have encouraged preservation of. <br />Commissioner Pearce stated that she has walked this structure; she was inside it and <br />around it, and this structure is certainly in much better shape than the structure at the <br />DiDonato site. She indicated that she loves Ms. Bourg's idea, and that ideally, she <br />would like to see this preserved. She indicated that she has talked to David DiDonato <br />and to Paul Martin, and they are encouraging moving the DiDonato house even though <br />they have been given license to demolish it. She stated that she would love to see it <br />moved across the street. She concluded that because the Task Force is in the middle <br />of ascertaining what is important to the City, she cannot support demolishing the <br />structure at this point. <br />Commissioner O'Connor indicated that he has not been on the inside of the home so it <br />is difficult to really comment on whether or not it should be demolished. He stated that <br />with respect to No. 4, however, given the age of the structure, his gut feeling is that <br />lacking a final conclusion of the Task Force at this time and just going by the historic <br />documents that the Commission is asking applicants to go out and fund in connection <br />with what it takes to get on a registry, there will be no more than five or six homes in the <br />City that will make it. He noted that the Commission is talking about preserving a look <br />and a feel in this town, which means that a lot more than just those that meet the <br />registry-type homes needs to be preserved. He added that when structures are 80, 90, <br />or 100 years old, he thinks the Commission really needs to be very careful. He noted <br />that the City has already taken down too many of them, and if in these sensitive areas, it <br />is much easier for a developer to clear the land and start fresh than it is to have to work <br />PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES, November 28, 2012 Page 17 of 38 <br />