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<br />preferred to keep the property in public and institutional zoning instead of changing it to <br />residential. <br /> <br />Ryan Richardson, 3621 Virgin Islands Court, agreed with the prior speaker and preferred <br />to keep the church property as public and institutional. He would not object to a school, but did <br />not want thirty homes or townhouses. He felt there should be a complete analysis of how much <br />land is left for this in Pleasanton. <br /> <br />Bob Slack, 6900 Valley Trails Drive, pastor of the Evangelical Free Church, said there is <br />no plan to build condos or town homes. He said the desire is to upgrade the existing church <br />facility and to make it more energy efficient and more environmentally and aesthetically pleasing <br />with more trees and less grass. The church wants to stay in that location and be a benefit to the <br />community. Improvements would make a better place for weddings to occur and there would be <br />benefits for the church because it would not be spending so much time, energy and funds to <br />maintain the church. The request is to reserve 25-30 units to be reserved against the housing <br />cap so that the church can convert six acres into a resource that could be used to maintain the <br />three acres the church would keep and use to the benefit of the community. He said they had <br />enlisted the help of Ponderosa Homes and a respected architectural firm to design a project <br />amenable to all parties and of benefit to everybody. <br /> <br />Monty Bindra, 8319 Regency Drive, said Pleasanton Ridge is very special and adds <br />much to the city and residents of Laguna Oaks. He requested if the properties west of Foothill <br />Road are designated RDR (rural density residential) that they remain in that zoning. He also <br />requested that any property of 25% slope be kept out of the calculation for density. He noted a <br />development on flat land has a different impact than one built on a slope. Regarding the Austin <br />property, which has an application for eight units, he preferred that the property remain RDR <br />and that there be no general plan amendment to increase density through other means such as <br />affordable housing. He felt five units would be acceptable for that area. <br /> <br />Joe Cunningham, 3599 Carlsbad Court, said there had been past efforts to put homes <br />on the church property and the Valley Trails Homeowners Association has always been <br />opposed to it. The Association has tried to work with the church and has not been successful. <br />The Association wants the land to remain public and institutional. He noted the St. Claire <br />church needed more land to expand; yet the Evangelical Church wants to reduce its size. <br />Perhaps these two churches should cooperate. He asked if the Evangelical Church land has <br />been tax free, do those back taxes have to be paid if the land is sold and is no longer public and <br />institutional? <br /> <br />Susan Bovee, 4417 Valley Avenue, said she owns a townhouse next to the Guesthouse <br />Inn and she felt her property was a buffer zone or feathering between the apartments behind <br />them and the single-family homes next to them. She did not understand how 37 units in that <br />small area could have any feathering or how that many units could be built in that tiny space. <br /> <br />Gill Woodruff, 8053 Horizons Court, indicated he lived in the Moller Ranch area east of <br />the Joel property. He believed there were currently three units on that property and a proposal <br />to add four additional units. The gated road to the existing three units is on a steep slope and <br />the noise is of concern to him. He did not want the zoning to be increased from the RDR level. <br />He said his primary concern was the access to the area and the steepness of some of the <br />roads. <br /> <br />Joint Workshop <br />City Council/Planning Commission <br /> <br />6 <br /> <br />03/01/06 <br />