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great importance to the community and downtown to have the fire station converted to a cultural arts facility. There are studies that show people who attend cultural arts events spend more dollars than just on that event. The will spend money on lodging, recreation, and entertainment. It also does a lot to increase pedestrian activity downtown. It also contributes to the overall economic vitality of the downtown area by pursuing one of the PDA goals to attract retail in addition to Main Street. The other issue she was concerned about was parking. She recommended the maximum allocation of parking be provided for in the plan, specifically along the ACTC. She supported integrating green space into the downtown, but parking is of critical importance to the downtown. Rudy Johnson, 5655 Black Avenue, indicated he was anxious to moving forward with the theater and gallery at the fire station so they can commence fund raising. He anticipated the new facility will be in full use immediately and will be used be a large number of young people. He hoped to develop a children's theater program and drama programs for young people as well as visual arts programs involving many young people as well as adults. Charlotte Severin, 4513 Mirador Drive, enthusiastically supported the downtown parks and trails plan, especially the specific designation of the fire station as a black box theater and gallery. That designation is necessary to go after private funding. She urged Council to make that designation when it adopts the master plan. Margene Gerton, 628 St. Mary Street, member of the Civic Arts Commission and Pleasanton Cultural Arts Council, asked for Council support of the theater and gallery in the fire station building. She felt this was important to the quality of life in the community for all citizens from the very young to the elderly. Steve Brozosky, 1700 Vineyard Avenue, hoped Council would enthusiastically endorse and approve the plan. He had three issues to discuss. He asked for continued studying of the town square concept. There is a plan for a town square at the parking lot of Round Table Pizza. He felt consideration should be given to using Division Street for that. If one is on Main Street and looks down Division, the first thing to see is the fire station. We need to pull more people from Main Street to Railroad Avenue and a visual connection would help that. The presentation included several mentions of the Arroyo and he hoped to keep water in it. Finally, he felt converting the fire station to an art center was extremely important for the city. The black box theater and gallery will bring the same level of excellence for the arts that the city already has for sports. David Wright, 5331 Northway Road, thanked Mr. Wolfe and city staff for working on this plan and for making sure the process was complete. He was impatient at times, but this is a great plan. Charles Huff, 30 West Neal Street, noted the creek is being overgrown with willows and other things from Neal to Angela Street. There is a rat and other rodent problem and he asked for city assistance in resolving this problem. Pleasanton City Council 18 07/16/02 Minutes