CCMIN062000 - Laserfiche WebLink

found here in California and across the nation, that as new shopping centers move to the outer parts of the cities, the city core begins to die and we end up with vacant buildings in the downtown and city areas. Pleasanton went through this many years ago. Fortunately we are passed it today. We have one of the nicest downtown areas that you will fred anywhere. It is nostalgia and it is antique dealers, such as Mr. Cox, that have done this. There were vacant buildings in downtown. Normally the antique dcaler cannot afford a real expensive place to sell his wares, because there's not as much markup in the antique business as people think. You sell a table and then you find another table to replace it; it isn't just being able to call a fitare distributor and say, bring another one in. The m~tique business is a tough business. As the time went on in downto~vn Pleastation, more and more antique stores came in. With the antique stores coming, they increased tmffic, the walk by traffic. As the years went by, when the traffic picked up and there were more people in the downtown area, then as a building comes vacant, the landowner raises the rent a little bit, because now its a better place to be and he can get higher rent. The next thing that happerks, the boutiques come in, the banks return to town, the little restaurauts come in, and as these things take place, it forces antique stores out. Approximately twenty years ago, there were probably 18 to 20 antique stores in downtown Petalums. Today there are about five. They are being tbrccd out; they are being forced into the com~nunities, farther away from the downtown area, as Mr. Cox has done, when the cormnunity bank bought the property that he was in. This is something that is taking place not just here but it is taking place across the nation. Planning people that he talked to were all trying to figure out whether or not they were going to set up some sort of a new zoning or what they were going to do to help these antique people that were moving from town. in the Midwest it is getting to the point that without somewhere else lbr them to move, they are moving way out on the outskirts of town, usually at a tumoff at the interstate, in some great big building or an existing barn that is there. They are going into these stores and this are usually outside of the city limits and there goes that city's sales tax dollar. Mr. Cox has found a building that will work. It is a short way l~om town, but still is a building that will work. But in order to make his building work he needs to have adcquatc signing. When he moved into that building it had sign number 10. sign number 7 and sign number 6 or 9. The Planning Commission approved number 7 and 6 and a wooden sign where number 8 is to go. Mr. Cox has asked for numbers 5 and 10, which both show from the side streets. He is not asking Council to break the rules in any way whatsoever, but we have a viable business that brings people to town. The staff report states that staff believes the approved signage to be consistent with the city's current policies concerning the signs. However. should Council desire to approve any or all of the additional signing requests by the applicant, it may do so. He is not asking Council to break any of the rules, but to bend them a bit in the direction of this applicant who has a viable business for this town, that is producing tax revenues for this town. He would certainly hope that Council would do that. Rcne Roman, 401 Main Street, Pleasanton, said that when he had the privilege of serving on the downtown board, they had set up a design committee and had worked with the City and the Planning Department at that time. As downtown developed and evolved, they had to do something about the signage. Between having the Design Committee and the Planning Department meet together, they were able to come up with some effective Pleasanton City Council 25 06/20/00 Minutes