02 ATTACHMENT 3 - Laserfiche WebLink

2005 Pleasanton Plan 2025 2.0 Land Use Element 2-8 Adopted 07 21 09 Conservation and Open Space Element, including Figure 7-4, for information about the City’s open space lands. In addition to open space, numerous neighborhood, community, and regional parks are interspersed within the City. See information about these parks in the Public Facilities and Community Programs Element, including Table 6-1 and Figure 6-2. AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST Pleasanton Ridgelands The Pleasanton Ridgelands area includes approximately 13,000 acres generally bounded by Interstate 580 (I-580) to the north, the 670-foot elevation near Foothill Road to the east, Niles Canyon Road to the south, and Palomares Road to the west – excluding the existing communities of Sunol, Kilkare Canyon, and Castlewood. Part of the Ridgelands area is within the City of Hayward, part within Pleasanton, and the remainder in unincorporated land of Alameda County. The Ridgelands area consists of ridges and valleys which separate the Tri-Valley from Castro Valley, Hayward, San Leandro, Union City, and Fremont. It provides the primary western visual backdrop for Pleasanton and joins the more westerly ridges in establishing the topographic edge to Hayward and Castro Valley. This predominantly undeveloped land further provides a scenic open space amenity of regional significance which includes regional parkland, agricultural land, and valuable wildlife habitat. Steeply sloping, heavily forested eastern and northern faces of the Pleasanton, Sunol, and Main Ridges, as well as broad grassland grazing areas along ridge tops and southern and western slopes, characterize the area. In November of 1993, Pleasanton voters approved Measure F, which directly related to the Ridgelands. The intent of the Measure was to preserve the remaining agricultural open space and designate the Ridgelands as Park and Recreation (for publicly-owned land) and Agriculture (for privately-owned land). In those areas designated Agriculture, certain uses which would be incompatible with the existing visual quality were not allowed. Refer to Programs 16.1 and 17.1, below, in the Goals, Policies, and Programs section, for further information about Measure F. View of ridgelands behind Pleasanton Avenue commercial building South Pleasanton Rolling and steeply sloping hills used predominantly as grazing and watershed land with low-density residential uses in the flatter Happy Valley Area characterize South Pleasanton. The General Electric Vallecitos Nuclear Research Center dominates the largely undeveloped Vallecitos Valley area north of State Route 84, while the San Antonio Reservoir watershed area, owned by the City and County of San Francisco, covers much of the area south of State Route 84.