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said the City staff recommends against it, he felt it would be bad planning and counterproductive <br />to the City's goals, and said the professional planners who prepare the general plan maps look <br />at the individual parcels, at the contour maps, and put land use designations that fit with the <br />parcel. He said this was done in the 1986 and 1996 General Plans. Ms. Stern has done this <br />with the 2008 plan. He pointed out the 190-acre Liason parcel and said he drew a cul-de-sac at <br />the end of Blessing Drive, which was in the preserve. He said Mr. Liason checked with the City <br />prior to purchasing the property, said the general plan also calls for trails through the property <br />and there are much manicured trails on the property now. He said Mr. Liason knew everyone <br />wanted these to ultimately be public trails, but if the 25% sloped land is excluded, the density <br />would be affected. If it got down-zoned to 2-3 units, the Liason's have no incentive to cooperate <br />on the public trails. They currently have 2 units under the county zoning and the general plan <br />change also affects many different properties. He felt property owners have a right to rely on <br />reasonable stability in their general plan designations for their property and he asked the <br />Council to follow the recommendation of the professional planners and not make this change to <br />the definition of gross developable acres. <br />Councilmember Cook-Kallio said she feels the land use element and general plan was an <br />aspiration and it did need to be flexible, as the future could not always be seen. She felt <br />strongly about the allowable units in CLC not being counted toward the cap, said there is <br />precedent in that they are not currently counted, she did not feel the City should limit the <br />possibility of having seniors living in the community because typically, they were family and to <br />have them close was beneficial and not want residents of Pleasanton to have to look elsewhere <br />in transitioning into assisted living. She felt the impact on infrastructure was minimal, particularly <br />on schools and she would hate to see the City limit the possibility of any family member or <br />community member to be able to live in a community they have lived all their life. She also felt it <br />was a place where the City could address affordable housing. She said there was a lot of <br />verbiage about TOD's and talk of bike lanes and pedestrian walkways. She felt the City has <br />done a reasonable job in providing these but has done a poor job of providing it for actual <br />transportation. There has been a scare tactic used when talking about TOD's in that we do not <br />want them to look a particular way. She felt the possibility of flexibility moving units into <br />Hacienda was important, thinks it is important as a Council to provide direction in terms of what <br />we think that should look like and also felt it was an opportunity to promote workforce housing. <br />She said it was irresponsible not to build housing if commercial is built and particularly liked 12.1 <br />that would encourage child care in business parks. She said someone mentioned looking at the <br />MOU dealing with Staples Ranch which is in the land use element and by approving the land <br />use element, the City is reasserting affirmation and approval of the MOU regarding Staples <br />Ranch, and said everything that goes on that land will come before the Council and Planning <br />Commission. Lastly, she requested removing the definition of gross developable acres, as she <br />felt it was unreasonable to change the rules of the game when people have bought and owned <br />property with a certain understanding and felt PUD's could be looked at on a case-by-case <br />basis to make a decision. <br />Councilmember Sullivan thanked staff for their work, felt the land use element was a major <br />policy document and liked the direction the Council was taking toward sustainable development <br />as a goal. He referred to the table on page 3 of the staff report, the calculation of available units, <br />and said it includes the 300 units found in the recalculation. It shows the remaining units to be <br />planned for under the 29,000 unit cap. However, if you look at the potential future units with no <br />approvals, the number is 748. He said these were units without any approval, but is mid-point <br />density designations in the existing General Plan, with the total number of units as 2,755. He felt <br />there was avoter-approved cap of 29,000 which the Council was dedicated to defending and to <br />him the units that are built should be of high value dwelling units in meeting the community's <br />City Council Minutes 11 August 21, 2007 <br />