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Commissioner Narum disclosed that she met with the applicant, walked the site, and met <br />with Tom Pico and several neighbors in the Grey Eagle Estates development. She also <br />was a voting member of the Parks and Recreation Commission at the time the project was <br />discussed. <br /> <br />Commissioner Pearce disclosed that she met with the applicant, walked the site, and met <br />with Tom Pico and several neighbors in the Grey Eagle Estates development. <br /> <br />Chairperson Fox noted that she had attended several City Council joint scoping sessions <br />in 2005. <br /> <br />THE PUBLIC HEARING WAS OPENED. <br /> <br /> <br />Martin Interbitzen, applicant, 4218 Casterson Court, introduced key members of the <br />consultant’s team and recognized the company’s project engineer, Mark McClellan, who <br />prepared the exhibits, detailed drawings, and explanatory materials and performed a large <br />volume of work in a way that non-engineers could understand and use. He made the <br />applicant’s presentation, describing the history of the site and the citizens’ referendum of <br />the previously approved project. He noted that this was the lowest density residential <br />development in the entire General Plan for the City. He noted that they examined site <br />characteristics, trees, biology, and geology and explored a number of alternative planning <br />concepts, including lotting out the entire property in five-acre lots and creating an <br />attached high-density clustered project at the entrance to the current project proposal. He <br />noted that they performed a community survey and several focus groups to determine the <br />community’s opinions on how a project in this area might relate to them. He noted that <br />they had numerous individual meetings with residents, staff, City Council members, <br />Planning Commissioners, and consultants, as well as several workshops, including a joint <br />City Council/Planning Commission workshop. They also made presentations to the <br />HOA’s of the Grey Eagle Estates and Kottinger Ranch. They tried to accommodate as <br />many concerns as they could from as many different viewpoints as possible. He then <br />displayed the site plan on the overhead screen and described the major features of the <br />project site. He noted that the site would include the biggest park in the City of <br />Pleasanton. He noted that to develop a site plan that would be consistent with the <br />surrounding properties, they must be respectful of the surrounding environment. They <br />designed the development to stay out of the drainages and the trees, leaving a <br />development along the ridgeline similar to that of Kottinger Ranch and Grey Eagle <br />Estates. He noted that their primary issue was traffic for the main access to the project, <br />from Hearst Drive down to Bernal Avenue. He noted that the number of cars per day <br />became a significant issue for the Kottinger Ranch residents, and they spent a <br />considerable amount of time working with them in order to mitigate those issues. The <br />other major concern was view impact. He noted that by grading some of the area, they <br />brought the homes sites down to the best of their ability and shielded the homes with <br />mitigation landscaping and tree planting. He noted that they planned to remove 58 of <br />over 12,000 trees on this site. He described the on-lot tree mitigation requirement for <br />each lot of one tree per 3,000 square feet and added that approximately 1,000 trees would <br />replace the 58 trees being removed from this site. <br />PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES June 13, 2007 Page 16 of 29 <br /> <br /> <br />