01 8-27-2008 - Laserfiche WebLink

concern about piecemealed PUD's and questioned why a quadrant of the park could be done. Mr. Iserson said staff would prefer not to do it as a piecemeal PUD but as a master plan PUD where the park would be looked at as a whole, concentrate on the area around the BART station, simultaneously consider the development plans and work with the developers to possibly change their plan depending on what is revealed through the overall process. Regarding the charrette, he said those concepts are on the table, he was not sure there was anybody specifically proposing they be done in that manner exactly, and staff simply provided examples in order to develop options. He also said when the allocation of the 333 units was presented to the business park owners they had to decide whether it was enough for them to move forward. City Attorney Roush recalled that the inclusionary zoning ordinance does provide flexibility so that if the Council determined it made sense for a particular project to consolidate the affordable housing units, it could. However, if for some reason the ordinance did not, then there would need to be an amendment to allow that. Commissioner O'Connor questioned if there have been preliminary discussions as to what type of commercial or retail uses would be allowed in the TOD mixed use residential areas. Mr. Iserson said it was touched on in the market study--uses that would cater to and serve residents who live nearby, opportunities for areas immediately adjacent to the BART station for commuters, and also uses to serve employees who work in the Business Park. Commissioner O'Connor said his concern is that if it is wide open and the City does not have enough residential units to support a mixed use and something is put in like asuper-Safeway or a large restaurant, there may be the need for outsiders to also support it. Mr. Iserson said one way to address this is through scale requirements. He said there will most likely be some general use restrictions, but if restricted by scale or maximum size square footage, this may be an approach to discourage or prohibit the types of uses that would not be appropriate. Mr. Dolan also noted that the market study addressed specific uses; a demand for grocery, additional restaurants, and the service type convenient uses for office workers and residents. Commissioner Fox referred to the Commission's review of Windstar and whether they would require a grocery store in order to keep residents onsite. She said the Planning Department indicated they would not require a grocery store, but if the City ends up with mixed use and retail uses that are not used by residents which then causes them to drive all over town as well as draw others from outside the development, she questioned how could mixed use work unless the City limits uses to particular things to keep residents onsite. Mr. Iserson believes there needs to be a balance; the list needs to be broad enough so as not to create vacancies. It could include those which support TOD and those that would have the greatest detriment to the entire concept. Councilmember Sullivan thought that whoever the developer is will want to design the development for retail to be economically viable with the City also wanting to maintain the TOD aspect and traffic benefits, without the goal of building super-Safeway stores. He said he would imagine design guidelines would be enforced for retail which would be discussed in the process. He said he was happy with the staff report and presentation, stating they were new planning concepts for Pleasanton. Some of the frustrations back then are also present now such as what is TOD, what does it look like, what are the numbers and density, and he felt the presentation was very helpful. CC/PC Joint Workshop Minutes 5 August 27, 2008