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Roby: Barrett's 24 years old and we obviously appreciate you doing a workshop tonight. <br />Obviously you've got your fill on Item number 6 or 7, questions about Sunflower Hill and I <br />hope you're going to have enough time to talk about some of the other items, but we saw <br />the opportunity to come down. I saw some of the public comments and people asking about <br />Sunflower Hill, about the community for adults with special needs so we thought we would <br />take advantage of the opportunity and come down and speak on behalf of how we are in <br />favor of it. As Mr. Serpa pointed out earlier in all of his work in the development world, he <br />has not seen a community like this and that is because there aren't communities like this. I <br />think if you talk to Susan and the other board members from Sunflower Hill, they had to look <br />far and wide across the United States to find other potential communities like this because <br />it's a new idea and a much needed idea and I know, my wife Ann and I work hard right now <br />to try and find housing options for Barrett. Barrett qualifies for the affordable housing units <br />that come up, in some of the recent developments like St. Anton. There's another lottery <br />right now and Barrett actually will qualify for the very low, but because of his special needs, <br />he needs to find a roommate, a non - profit that will provide supportive living services, so it's <br />not an easy thing. I know you'll ask some of the families who will come up and ask hey, will <br />you be willing to buy a home nearby, and all of us are going to say yes because we think <br />that sounds like the most supportive thing of the project. It's difficult because if we did get <br />that place, we would have to also find roommates that would want to stay with our young <br />adult. We'd also have to find services that could be provided. When you get a community <br />like Sunflower Hill that gets taken care of. <br />Barrett, though he may qualify for low income housing, he needs the services, and the City <br />of Pleasanton is to be commended. You're doing something that we will see all communities <br />eventually do, all loving and caring communities provide housing for their seniors, for their <br />veterans, for those with special needs. Pleasanton is that kind of community and so we are <br />very much in favor of that. Thank you for talking about that this evening. <br />Chair Ritter: So we'll close the workshop to the public and bring it back to staff and <br />Commissioners. <br />THE PUBLIC HEARING WAS CLOSED. <br />Chair Ritter: Do we have any questions for staff? I'll just start with an easy one. Is there any <br />other non - profit or private and public similar to this in Pleasanton; not necessarily special <br />needs that you know of? <br />Hagen: There really isn't anything similar to this. You know, we have a senior housing <br />project; Kottinger Gardens, who has partnered with Mid Pen for senior housing, but outside <br />of that, we do not have any other specialty group housing of any type, special needs, or <br />anything like that. All the rest are affordable components of larger scale residential projects. <br />Chair Ritter: And I understand that that School of Imagination in Dublin did something <br />similar but that was for younger kids. Does it compare with that at all? <br />Hagen: No. <br />Commissioner Nagler: Can we just go through, if it's appropriate, some of the comments <br />that staff has made specifically about the development proposal because I think it's hard to <br />answer this question —do we support the General Plan Amendment. <br />Chair Ritter: We're going to go through these and take any questions and then we'll go <br />through the discussion points? <br />PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES, April 27, 2016 Page 15 of 43 <br />