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proceed with the initiative and proceed with collecting signatures, that is fine. The public has the fight to do so, but he believed something could be worked out that would make it easier. Mr. Campbell did not think it was good enough. He thought that if the sporting community got what it wanted, they would not have brought the initiative forward. If the Council were to decide that all of the plans that were going to be submitted must have at least eight ball fields, then the sporting community would be satisfied, the initiative would not have to go forward, and the park plan would include all of the elements that Council wanted. Mayor Pico said that from his point of view, he is not willing to make that concession at this time. He thought there could potentially be another design that incorporated all of these things but may not have it in exactly the same spot. He did not know, and from his perspective, the City worked really hard to acquire this property and he wanted to make sure that whatever plan it came up with is absolutely the best plan that the people of Pleasanton want. He believed there were some issues that some councilmembers had with the wording, the initiative and other things. He did not believe this was the time to argue or discuss them. He really wanted Council to be able to get the design competition started and be able to resolve the other issues at another meeting. To address Mr. Campbell's point, Ms. Ayala said that the proponents of the initiative have a concern, which she shares. Their concern is that when Council votes on something it can be changed. If Council takes this to a vote of the people, which Council said all along it wanted to do, that is the way to get all of the uses incorporated without becoming specific to placement of the uses. Once it is voted upon, the sports community will not have to worry about it any more because the only way it could be changed is by a vote of the people. Mayor Pico opened the meeting for public comments. Jerry Thorne, 5144 Hummingbird Road, was quite pleased to be one of the authors of the "Initiative to Save Our Community Park." He had planned to say quite a few things this evening but what he wanted to do was to respond to some of the comments that he heard between the councilmembers. He read a passage from the full text of the initiative so that Mr. Brozosky could understand what Mr. Roush was referring to. He noted that the initiative stated "Nothing in this policy shall limit the discretion of the City to locate additional park uses in areas outside the community park overlay district." Outside of the hatched area, Council could put anything it wanted, including the baseball fields. He provided Council background as to why the proponents did what they did with the 800-foot setback. He noted that when he and Mr. Maas started reviewing what they should include in the initiative, they really did not want to be greedy. They wanted to put together an initiative that would be palatable to a large majority of the community. He and Mr. Maas went to the first plan that was put together by the Task Force, and that is what is outlined in the cross-hatched area of the initiative that Council had in front of them. This area included a little amphitheater, a botanical Pleasanton City Council 11 03/02/04 Minutes