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58 that outdoor dining was nice. He presented photos to Council of other cities' downtowns and pointed out the difference it makes between flexible zones and wider sidewalks. He believed it would be to the merchants' advantage to have wider sidewalks especially for the coming farmers market. Mr. Bronzini also expressed concern about maintenance of the planters in the flexible zones. He questioned the practicality of a flexible zone. Mr. Bronzini indicated that flexible zoning is seasonal and asked who would be responsible for maintenance of this. He stated that flexible zoning was experimental and did not believe that downtown Pleasanton should be the test site. He also believed that the "step curb" concept was not in character with the downtown. He asked Ms. Acosta if a study was ever completed on the traffic of downtown with diagonal parking. Ms. Acosta answered that there was a traffic study done and that later this evening the Chief of Police would make a presentation on it. Mr. Bronzini was in favor of diagonal parking but would surrender the parking for wider sidewalks. Mr. Bronzini referred to the extra 35 parking spaces created by diagonal parking and asked what would happen to them if a business used flexible zoning. Mr. Freedman answered that the some spaces would be lost and others converted to parallel parking. Frank Brandes, 6889 Corte Sonada, stated that it was important to recognize that the objective was not necessarily to change Main Street but to revitalize it. He concurred with Joyce Getty's comments and felt that Option D was the most appropriate plan and gave the most flexibility for the present and future time. Bill Hirst, 235 Main Street, generally supported the Task Force's recommendations. He believed that Option D would be the best compromise and was in support of it. He felt that trees in the downtown would soften the atmosphere and have a lot to do with the ambiance'and character of the area. He asked for Council to include provisions for irrigation of the trees that would be planted. Ruby Greer, 444 Main Street, Main Street Spirits and Deli, listed the different committees she had been involved with in the past several years. She stated that when the flexible zone was first presented to her she fully supported it but after visiting other cities which were using the flexible zoning she developed great concerns. Her concerns were: noise and fumes from cars; difficult to clean; dangerous to diners; loss of parking spaces and it was not known how many businesses in downtown would use the flexible zone and asked what the cost would be to businesses for using it. 6/2/92