RES 99109 - Laserfiche WebLink

PLEASANTON PUBLIC PLANNING INITIATIVE The people of the City of Pleasanton herebv ordain as follows: Purpose. This initiative will ensure that the issues that concern Pleasanton residents are taken into account and are dealt with in an appropriate manner. This initiative gives the people of the City of Pleasanton the right to vote, without having to evoke a referendum, on each and every significant change of zoning and major residential development approval. Findings. The voters of the City do find and declare as follows: Improper growth has resulted in serious problems in Pleasanton and its surrounding communities. Our air basin has already been identified as one of the worst in the nation. We are the home of the worst traffic commute in the Bay Area. Schools are overcrowded. More inappropriate growth of the type that has already occurred will worsen these and other quality of life components. Housing developments and land use changes have major impacts on all aspects of life in Pleasanton. They affect water and air pollution, the quality of the schools, traffic congestion, commuting problems both in and out of Pleasanton, utility costs, housing values, noise, public safety, adequacy of facilities such as libraries and sports parks, parking availability, the employee/employer ratio, and other factors. Pleasanton and its neighboring cities are in the process of changing from small suburbs into part of the urban sprawl of the San Francisco Bay ,Area. It is much more important now that the concerns of residents, employers and employees here be directly taken into account. Improperly managed, excessive, or unbalanced changes in the land use of the City could also adversely affect the City's capability to provide adequate facilities and services, which could lower quality of life for existing or future residents, businesses or their employees. Furthermore, it is important that the City act as if it recognizes that open-space land is a limited and valuable resource which must be conserved whenever possible, and, in accordance with the statutes of the State of California, that it should discourage the premature and unnecessary conversion of open- space land to urban uses. It is the intent of voters of the City to reserve for themselves the right to vote on those changes that most significantly affect their lives in the aspects of adequate traffic flow, provision of utilities, services, facilities, air pollution, water pollution, aesthetic aspects, noise and community character. Such a vote will allow a final check that the public' s interests have been adequately taken into account, without the need for the residents to initiate a referendum.