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ROLL CALL VOTE: <br />AYES: <br />Commissioners Allen, Balch, and Ritter <br />NOES: <br />None <br />ABSTAIN: <br />None <br />RECUSED: <br />None <br />ABSENT: <br />Commissioners Brown, Nagler, and O'Connor <br />The Minutes of the June 22, 2016 Meeting were approved as submitted. <br />3. MEETING OPEN FOR ANY MEMBER OF THE AUDIENCE TO ADDRESS THE <br />PLANNING COMMISSION ON ANY ITEM WHICH IS NOT ALREADY ON THE <br />AGENDA <br />Carrie Cox: I speak to you tonight with great optimism, pride and gratitude. The Citizens <br />for Planned Growth have achieved what seemed impossible - collecting over 7,000 <br />signatures without using a collecting firm and without the benefit of two major collection <br />spots; the Safeway at Bernal and the Safeway at Santa Rita. Neither allowed collection <br />after Measure K. Over 2,000 signatures were collected in the final week. This normally <br />would be the most difficult period but people wanted to sign. This tells you of the <br />momentum that was building. The signatures were collected by the Citizens for Planned <br />Growth with courtesy and dignity. I collected many signatures myself. People thanked <br />us. I doubt that in the City of Pleasanton there will ever be an initiative or referendum go <br />this smoothly with collection. The police were never called. Never were we asked to <br />leave a location because of a complaint. The Citizens for Planned Growth will run their <br />campaign the same way —with honor and dignity. <br />It is now up to you and the City Council to allow the people's desire for a vote in <br />December. The Registrar of Voters has certified our sufficiency for signatures. I ask that <br />you approve the initiative without any further delay. The cost to the citizens will never be <br />this small again. Delaying past November could cost the City as much as $300,000, and <br />anger thousands of citizens who expect to vote in November. It is really simple and <br />should not require any further study or delay, big box or no big box on Johnson Drive. <br />Thank you for allowing me to speak. <br />Bill Wheeler: I'm the owner of Black Tie Transportation still at the corner of Johnson <br />Drive and Commerce here in the lovely town of Pleasanton. I'm also head of Citizens for <br />Planned Growth which collected 7,000 signatures on a petition to get the Johnson Drive <br />big box initiative on the November 8th ballot. The petition signatures were certified by <br />the Registrar of Voters this week and the City Clerk put them on the City Council <br />agenda's consideration for July 1 gth <br />We hope that the City Councilmembers will see that this will allow the citizens of <br />Pleasanton to vote on whether they want a big box store in the JDEDZ and will place <br />the initiative on the November 8th General Election ballot. Including the big box store in <br />the JDEDZ is a major decision that will affect the majority of citizens of Pleasanton, so <br />they should have a vote, and clearly 7,000 citizens expressed their desire to participate <br />in this way. Any further delay in putting it on the ballot by asking yet for another study or <br />creating a special election would only mean increased costs to the City. The one thing <br />PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES, July 13, 2016 Page 2 of 38 <br />