12 Exhibits - Laserfiche WebLink

moving in the right direction and that the project is beginning to look more like Pleasanton. He stated that the design of the smaller stores look good and agreed with Commissioner Fox's comments that the Home Depot store needs more design creativity, particularly where the garden center is loeated, and that the arched doors needed to go. He recommended that staff look carefully into the uses for the peripheral stores and limit the list to low traffic-generating uses. Finally, he requested that staff define traffie routes for trucks and have I-Iome Depot commit to having their delivery trucks follow that route. Chairperson Arkin expressed appreciation for the Commissioners' eomments. (-Ie indicated that with respect to the architecture, he believed the applicant would be able to come up with a design that he could support. He stated that he would really like to have a traffic model with the scenario where the existing store on Johnson Drive closes down and see what it does to the traffic at this location and how many vehicles would be coming /i'om the west side of town down Valley Avenue to get to Home Depot. He reiterated that he needed the data ti'om the traffic models with all the scenarios in order to see what the impact would be before he can make a decision on the projeet. Commissioner Blank eommented that should that store close down, people who live on that side of town may decide to drive north to Orchard Supply Hardware in Dublin rather than drive through the traffic to the east side, in which case it would be difficult to quantify the traffic numbers. Chairperson Arkin replied that he was certain the Traffic Division would know how to handle that scenano. Chairperson Arkin then indicated that he would like to see a condition for the eoffee place pad that would preclude any fastfood restaurants or a vending mechanism for grills at that location. With respect to the closing of the other store, he stated that in a session of big box stores that he attended at the Planners Institute conference in Monterey, some cities have come up with mechanisms to try and protect themselves from the blight of having big vacant buildings. He noted that while the letter /i'om Home Depot indicated that the first store would not close down, the City has no guarantee that it will not happen in the future. Commissioner Blank commented that WalMart recently adopted a new strategy after finding out that the total sales of stores operating close to each other in the same municipality are greater than the sales of stores operating individually. He noted that Home Depot is the seeondlargest retail store in the country with WalMart being the first. Commissioner Fox requested staff to work with the applicant and identify Home Depot stores that are loeated three miles or more from a ti'eeway in Northern California cities comparable to Pleasanton that might also be close to a mobile home park or within 1,000 feet of a medium density residential housing neighborhood. She indieated that she would like to visit these sites and see an example of a store similar to what is being proposed at this site. No action was taken. EXCERPT: PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES, May 24, 2006 Page II of II