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natural land contours and heritage trees, minimizing the visual impacts of building on the hills, and minimizing grading in landslide-prone areas, it could be argued that any new hillside development regulations should be applied to all development and not just to projects of more than 10 homes. Options: Apply the potential hillside development regulations fo projects of 10 or more units; or, apply the regulations to all hillside development, regardless of the number of units. • Where should development be restricted? A 25 percent slope represents a climb of approximately 11 degrees above the horizontal, or a 4 to 1 slope (a one foot rise for every four foot on the horizontal). The maximum developable slope under the proposed initiative is 25 percent; although development of land with a slope of 25 percent does not represent any particular engineering or technical challenge, there is some precedent for using a 25 percent slope cut-off point for development as seen in the 1996 General Plan policy language referenced above. Several existing hillside projects, including The Preserve, Golden Eagle Farm, and Kottinger Ranch, were built on sites that include land with slopes of 25 percent or more, as provided for in the General Plan. These developments were approved through the PUD process following environmental review (EIR's were certified for each of the projects). In Attachment 1 to this agenda report are maps that show the existing development and the natural slopes on the property prior to development. For example, Map 1 a of the existing Kottinger Ranch development shows the roads following the ridge tops that were the flatter parts of the site. It also should be noted that Fire Department policy is for fire access roads to be no more than 15 percent slope, although such roads may have short stretches of up to 20 percent slope. Staff has also prepared a map (Attachment 2) which shows the location of selected undeveloped hillside properties. As shown, areas of less than 25 percent slope (potentially developable) are often separated by bands of more steeply sloped areas. If (as set forth in the Save Pleasanton's Hills Initiative) development is prohibited on land with 25 percent or greater slopes, there is a question whether grading for roads on land exceeding 25 percent slopes (which would be necessary to provide access to developable portions of the site) would be permitted. (The Initiative language reads, "No grading to construct residential or commercial structures shall occur on hillside slopes 25% or greater... "). If such grading were not permitted, very little of the remaining undeveloped land in the Southeast Hills would be developable under the proposed Initiative. The Save Pleasanton's Hills Initiative also would prohibit development within 100 feet of a ridgeline. "Ridgeline" is not defined in the Initiative and could be broadly interpreted to include almost any high point on a property. Such an interpretation could be problematic, however. For example, even in the Foothill Road area Page6of9