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businesses be allowed on this site. He suggested that a Pleasanton design style be <br />/~~ determined and applied to this store, similar to what Santa Barbara has instituted. <br />Brian Schwartz, Arthur Drive, noted that he was a member of Beth Emek and understood <br />the traffic, safety, and noise issues. He added that no one had addressed the issue of tax <br />revenues for the City and believed the City would not make any more tax revenue out of <br />this project. He believed this consumer center would make the current traffic flow worse. <br />Chairperson Arkin wished to emphasize that the Planning Commission never met out of <br />public view, which would be a violation of the Brown Act. He added that when the <br />Commissioners met sepazately with the applicant, financial aspects of the project were <br />not discussed. <br />David Bouchard, 434 Vineyazd Place, spoke in support of this application. He noted that <br />this project would generate approximately $1 million annually in sales tax revenue. He <br />added that the project would pay for the impact fees as well. From his service with the <br />Chamber of Commerce, he had seen the positive impact such a business can have on the <br />community, from the standpoint of jobs creation and revenue generation. He would <br />rather keep the tax dollars in Pleasanton. <br />Pete Knoedler thanked the comments from the residents and looked forward to working <br />with them. He noted that they would work with the Temple regarding the noise concerns <br />and could beef up the landscaping between their project and Nevada Court. He noted that <br />~-- they could add a berm with more mature trees to satisfy their concerns. He had been <br />working closely with staff regarding traffic, and they had hired their own traffic <br />consultant. They considered the alternative of not having a loop road and added that the <br />intersection was severely constrained. <br />In response to an inquiry by Chairperson Arkin regazding the number of current <br />customers expected to go to the new store, Mr. Knoedler replied that they would gladly <br />perform an economic study to analyze tax dollar flow and leakage. He believed this <br />project would generate $800,000-$1,000,000 in tax revenues. The other Home Depot did <br />not expect a big drop-off from their store sales. <br />In response to an inquiry by Chairperson Arkin regazding changing the current Home <br />Depot to a contractor's supply center, Greg George, real estate manager for Home Depot, <br />replied that the original store was anon-prototype, smaller store. That store would <br />remain as it is and would not be changed to a contractor store with the same merchandise <br />mix. The reason they were looking at placing the store at this site was the result of a <br />mazket study, which showed that significant volume was bleeding to the Livermore area. <br />The new store would have a 35,000-square-foot garden center and would have a more <br />efficient layout and design. He noticed that the need for customer density had been <br />reduced because the average visit of once to twice a month has increased to once to twice <br />a week. He noted that there was a contractor store across the street from the original <br />consumer store in Colma. <br /> <br />PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES January 11, 2006 Page 14 of 19 <br />