CCMIN092496 - Laserfiche WebLink

Angelina Summers opposed the second BART station near the Stoneridge mall. Livermore needs a station and she urged Council to support a station near the Livermore Lawrence Lab. She felt the primary purpose of public transportation is to provide access to jobs. She felt the Lab would provide a shuttle for its employees. It seems Pleasanton is always behind in meeting the needs. Adding a second story to provide parking would meet the needs, but adding a station in Livermore would deliver employees to the Livermore area and the Lab and would assist commuters coming over the Altamont Pass and thereby relieve traffic on 680, 580, or 238. If the proposed express rail is built, then those riders would need to connect with BART and a station in Livermore would be ideal. She urged the Pleasanton Council to support a station in Livermore as a high priority. She asked why BART has to have new plans for each new station; why not use the same designs and save the taxpayers money. Jeff Colvin, 1726 Orchard Way, strongly supported the west Pleasanton/Dublin BART station. He was on the Circulation Subcommittee of the General Plan committee and one issue it considered was the west BART station as well as the extension to Livermore and both items were supported. He stated he had taken an informal poll of friends and neighbors in Pleasanton regarding the west Pleasanton station. There were concerns that a station near the mall would attract youth gangs and other unsavory characters. The issue of crime demographics and particularly its connection with the availability of public transport is an extremely complex issue and he felt it needs more study before Council turns its back on a west station. Perhaps we can learn from the experience of other communities. He moved here from Washington D.C. and he frequently used the Washington Metro, which is a fine public transportation system. There are several stations inside large malls or across the parking lot from a large mall. These stations were not overrun with youth gangs or other crime problems. On the other hand, there were two neighborhoods which specifically did not have Metro stations because of concerns about possible crime problems. A station was not placed in a particularly high crime neighborhood with the idea that the residents would not terrorize the rest of the city; this did not stop the residents from going to other districts. An upscale neighborhood (Georgetown) did not want a Metro station because of concerns about crime, but that did not stop street crime in Georgetown. Mr. Colvin believed the problem was enormously complex and we should do our homework before making any sweeping conclusions about the connection between crime at Stoneridge mall and the coming of BART to the mall. Alice Waterman, General Manager for Stoneridge Mall and a member of the Taubman Company, indicated she was glad BART is coming to the Valley as an employer, employee and resident of the area. The concern at Stoneridge has always been with overflow parking. If the west Pleasanton/Dublin station is built as planned with an appropriate amount of parking, the mall was in support of the station and felt it was a benefit. Pat Gibson, 1453 Third Street, #400, Santa Monica, Traffic Engineer for the mall, indicated he has been involved in planning Stoneridge since 1975. In 1977 or 1978 when the mall was being reviewed, the only people who objected to the mall were the residents in the West Las Positas corridor, who objected to the Stoneridge interchange being built before the 09/24/96 -19-