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Commissioner Balch recused himself due to a conflict of interest. <br />Jenny Soo presented the staff report and described the scope, layout, and key elements <br />of the project. <br />Chair Allen commented for anyone in the public who might be interested that it looks <br />like Summerhill is providing more than just ten affordable units in terms of overall <br />compensation as in the Housing Agreement, Summerhill is also paying a total of <br />$122,000 into the City's Low - Income Housing Fund for 44 units. She asked staff if that <br />was correct. <br />Ms. Soo said yes. <br />THE PUBLIC HEARING WAS OPENED. <br />Kevin Ebrahimi, Vice President for Development for Summerhill Homes, stated that <br />Summerhill Homes is a privately held company headquartered in San Ramon and has <br />been developing high quality homes in the Bay Area since 1976. He indicated that <br />Summerhill was excited to be back in Pleasanton for this new project, a 94 for -sale <br />townhome condominium community on the 5.9 acre site. He noted that the current <br />zoning for the site is Planned Unit Development, Multi -Use, with a density of 30 units <br />per acre, and Summerhill proposes to amend the zoning designation for the site to allow <br />a density of approximately 15.9 units per acre which substantially reduces the density. <br />Mr. Ebrahimi stated that last year, the City approved Summerhill's proposal to construct <br />177 new rental apartments on this site. He noted that while the apartment project <br />remains approved, recent trends in the residential market provided Summerhill with the <br />opportunity to develop for -sale townhome condos instead, which would be a better fit for <br />Pleasanton while continuing to meet the City's need for high quality housing. <br />Mr. Ebrahimi continued that last year, Summerhill also worked extensively with the <br />Parkside neighborhood residents to try to understand their concerns about the potential <br />impact of the 177 apartment project and made a number of changes to the project to <br />address their concerns. He noted that Summerhill has incorporated and improved all of <br />those modifications in this new project to honor all of the commitments it had previously <br />made, such as reducing the maximum height of the project from four stories to three <br />stories and tapered the units down to two stories at the edge of the site as a transition to <br />both the southern and westerly neighborhood; increasing the building setback from the <br />required 50 feet to 59 feet on the south side of the property, and from 52 feet to 59 feet <br />on the western side of the property. <br />Mr. Ebrahimi then showed some slides illustrating the key elements of the project: <br />buildings inspired by the Spanish Colonial architecture with a blend of warm colors and <br />mix of plaster and brick surfaces and decorative details like exposed rafter tails, door <br />trim and wrought iron railings; the main entry to the community at the corner of <br />PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES, May 13, 2015 Page 25 of 32 <br />