PC 071206 - Laserfiche WebLink

Mr. Fulton stated that the plan as presented to staff grossly misrepresents the visual impact of the project by originally using only six locations, all of which were in Kottinger Ranch. He noted that four other sites have been added in Grey Eagle Court, Red Feather Court, and a few others. He stated that one of the reasons why the pictures aze problematic is because 28-millimeter wide-angle lenses were used for all the pictures except that from Bernal Avenue, which utilized a 55-millimeter wide-angle lens. He stated that a 28-millimeter lens produce pictures that do not truly represent what the eye actually sees and makes everything look much more insignificant. Mr. Fulton stated putting the road on top of the ridge and then dropping the houses down on either side would produce a visual impact of rooflines rather than a natural ridgeline. He noted there were no views of the horizon of Matazo Court, Grey Eagle, Vintage Hills, Vintage Hills II, the views from the Busch property, and that instead of seeing hillsides, one would be looking at houses. He added that the developers claim that the reason for the ridgeline placement was for environmental reasons, but he believed it was because it would be less expensive to do since not as much dirt would have to be moved, and each lot could be sold for twice as much because of the view from the house. However, from the rest of the town, the view of the ridgelines would be replaced by looking up at the houses. He indicated that the citizens of Pleasanton fought long and hazd to save the ridge and that caze should be taken with the only other ridgelines left in the southeast hills. Mr. Fulton stated that in the biological study, the azea just west of Court 1 and north of Hearst Drive that were initially proposed for a pazk is daily haunted by hawk, kites, owls, vultures and fox at night. He added that the same azea right below Court 1 has had several landslides over the years and is so steep such that kids who used to go up there with their four-wheel drives needed to be pulled out. Mr. Fulton concluded that there is the oppomtnity now to determine whether the future horizons will be ridgelines or rooflines and that he personally voted for ridgelines. Russell Schmidt, 18 Grey Eagle Court, on the north boundary, two existing houses down from the proposed exit to the EVA. He requested that noise during construction be addressed, particulazly the backup beepers on heavy construction equipment, especially since the buildout period is estimated to six to eight yeazs. He inquired if anything could be done to abate the sound such as taming the volume down or changing its frequency. He also noted that construction hours were proposed to be from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. but does not specify if that included weekends. He requested that if construction work is allowed on weekends, no backup beepers be allowed on Saturday and Sunday. Mr. Schmidt then addressed the issue of dust and wind. He stated that typically during the summer, the area gets prevailing winds from south-southwest between 10 and 20 miles an hour, which have blown away lawn equipment and umbrellas off their stands. He added that moving 700,000 cubic yazds of soil is going to result in a lot of dust in the air and requested that attention be paid to that. He stated that there would also be an impact on nighttime views and glaze. Mr. Schmidt continued that on page 74 of the Draft EIR, there are four bullet items on proposed mandatory design guidelines in relation to directing lighting down onto the lot and not having 20