01 (2) - Laserfiche WebLink

same time, the Council was looking at park planning throughout the City. They had an interest in lighted sports field and identified a couple of sites in the City, so the General Plan did include the 30 acre park within the Staples Ranch area, but the specific plan shows the community park as 17.2 acres. City Manager Fialho said what led to the change was that there was an active project being considered by the City that influenced the outcome of that General Plan designation to 30 acres. When the K&B project went away, in exchange for providing them density on the site, they were dedicating to the City a potential 30 acre park and now there is a conflict. Ron Tai Regional Financial Officer with Hendrick Automotive and Project Manager for the Staples Ranch Auto Mall project, presented a PowerPoint presentation and videos. He described the proposal for an Auto Mall of 37 acres, noted Mercedes Benz of Pleasanton will join them, said they began in 1987 and were long time corporate citizens of the town. Their problem is that they are currently operating on 17 acres of owned land and 3 acres of leased land on 7 different sites, which operationally causes issues. Their manufacturers require certain minimum standards in land and building which they cannot meet on any of their franchises, so they must move. He presented recently completed buildings elsewhere in the country, said the site plan consists of 6 buildings with a total of 295,000 square feet, they are asking for rooftop parking over a portion of the 3 large buildings and propose parapet walls to disguise the parking, landscaping, lighting controls and they believe the parking will be invisible to anyone at road level. They are also proposing 4 carwashes on site and would use whatever is available in water reclaiming systems for environmental purposes. Mr. Tai said the front of the property is beyond two public utility easements that have specific requirements of what you can put in them. They have presented a landscape plan and have agreed to landscape the Caltrans margin. They propose a double row of trees on EI Charro and Auto Mall Place, thick landscaping, they have created two nice boulevards to access dealerships and the goal is to maximize landscaping on the exterior and the boulevards because of the way they operate. They do this because of problems with birds and tree sap and sight issues. Mr. Tai presented elevations of all buildings and signage, stating their overriding goal is to get a sense of visibility from the freeway and said buying on the freeway was expensive but very important to them. He presented their proposed signs in comparison of neighboring cities, said the signs would be about 15 feet at the dealership and would be located close to the entry on the property. Mayor Hosterman confirmed with Mr. Tai that the freeway sign was located at the northwest corner closest to the freeway. Mr. Tai said the proposed facility will allow them to store twice as many cars, meet or exceed all manufacturers' standards for now and into the future, they will operate at much higher sales levels, which is good for them and the City as sales tax revenues increase. Regarding their current 17 owned acres of property, they have significant interest from a number of developers who would like to buy all or part of the property and they would work with staff to pick projects that would enhance the City. Mr. Tai presented the fly-over videos for the project. City CounciVPlanning Commission 2 November 8, 2007 Joint Workshop