18 - Laserfiche WebLink

AGFUO - Public comments provided to the Planning Commission for the July 28, 2021, meeting .1A PLEASANTOIJi COMMERCE! x July 28, 2021 City of Pleasanton Planning Commissioners City of Pleasanton P.0, Box 520 Pleasanton, CA 94566 RE: Proposed Amendments to the Downtown Specific Plan's Active Ground Floor Use Overlay Dear City of Pleasanton Planning Commissioners: This letter is regarding the recommended changes city staff are proposing to the Downtown Specific Plan's Active Ground Floor Use Overlay that will be discussed at your July 28`h meeting. The chamber has always been a strong supporter of increasing downtown vitality by advocating for more parking, cleaning up inconsistencies in the building code and providing a designated city staff liaison to assist downtown small businesses. The chamber has not been a supporter of the Active Ground Floor Use Overlay and asks that you seriously consider if now is the right time to increase the retail mandate to 60% versus the current 25%. With increased ecommerce from companies like Amazon, the demand for retail space will continue to decline, providing another example why an increased mandate does not make sense at this time. However, we do support staffs recommendation that any new active use should be "front -facing" and a visible business operation, offer a point-of-sale mechanism, and business hours that are consistent with retail and restaurant uses. Signage should also match the active use and any non-active use signage should be secondary to the active use. To assist city staff in managing tenant space that may be shared by a non-active use, both businesses should be required to obtain separate business licenses. Lastly, we believe that personal services such as barbershops, beauty salons and spas be included as an active use since they generally create more foot traffic than a stand-alone restaurant or small retail store. By leaving them out of the active use definition, we are limiting our downtown vitality, We believe more flexibility and fewer mandates are warranted as many small businesses are still struggling to recover from the pandemic and therefore request you do notsupport increasing the active use mandate to 60%. Sincerely, Steve Van Dorn President/CEO ,;vww.pleasanton.oig 777 Peters Avenue • Pleasanton, CA 94566 • Phone: (925) 846-5858 Distributed to City Council for the September 7, 2021, meeting Page 20