Laserfiche WebLink
and get it approved before the collaborative process gets done. He said that project will have <br />the biggest impact to the southeast hills. He would be supportive of Councilmember McGovern's <br />idea to create a hillside development moratorium until this is done if the Council adopts it. <br />Similarly, this would include the title of the initiative and he felt it needed to be made clear that <br />this is acouncil-sponsored initiative. He also felt the poison pill provisions need to be out in <br />front. Since this is a major "trust us" proposition, if we are going to ask the community to trust <br />the Council to do what it says it is going to do, we should give them the opportunity at the end of <br />the process to vote on it and ratify that policy. <br />Councilmember Sullivan indicated Councilmember Cook-Kallio suggests Option 4 for the ballot <br />question. It states, "Shall the....be adopted that would preserve all scenic hillsides and ridges <br />surrounding Pleasanton" and he felt this was a misleading statement because it would create a <br />policy that would have a goal to do that. <br />Mayor Hosterman said she heard Councilmember Cook-Kallio's request to strike the word, "all" <br />and what she envisions is that knolls may or may not be appropriate so the City will need to <br />define exactly what a hillside is through elevation, and she believed it is a good option. <br />Vice Mayor Thorne said he would opt for Option 1 as a title, agrees with changing <br />"management" to "control" initiative, said he was prepared to go with a more lengthy question, <br />but since the summary route is gone, then both should go the summary route. He would go <br />along with Option 4, asked that the word "re-affirm" be changed to "implement" because he <br />does believe this is an action plan and not a plan to do a plan. <br />Mayor Hosterman suggested using "affirm policies" and not necessarily specify "General Plan", <br />and she read the revised question, "Shall the (title) be adopted that would preserve scenic <br />hillsides and ridges surrounding Pleasanton and implement policies that protect hillsides and <br />define housing units that respects the voter-approved housing cap?" Councilmembers Cook- <br />Kallio, Vice Mayor Thorne and Mayor Hosterman supported the question. <br />Councilmember McGovern asked if this was true because you are talking about a plan to <br />preserve a collaborative process. She cannot say that process will come out and preserve <br />scenic hills and ridges surrounding Pleasanton and implement policies that protect hillsides and <br />define housing units. She does not believe this because the city has had a general plan in place <br />since 1996 that has policies in it, the flexibility word is used, and then we do not protect. <br />Councilmember Sullivan agreed and felt the statement was misleading. This should say, "...that <br />has a goal of preserving all scenic hillsides." <br />City Attorney Roush cautioned the Council with the use of "implement" rather than "affirm or <br />adopt" because when one looks to Section 3, what the voters are actually being asked to do is <br />to re-affirm the General Plan policies which do talk about preserving and protecting. This is why <br />staff had suggested in Option 4, the word "re-affirm" be used as opposed to "implement". Vice <br />Mayor Thorne questioned if the end result of the process was an ordinance, and City Attorney <br />Roush said the purpose is to create that, but the actual substantive portion of the initiative <br />affirms and adopts the existing general plan policies that do talk about preservation and <br />protection. What the Initiative does is set into motion a process that will look at a number of <br />things the Council will have identified as things needing to be looked at to further implement <br />that. <br />Councilmember Cook-Kallio said this ordinance, as it is written, is very specific about making <br />sure definitions are there. So, it has more meat in it than the General Plan would. City Attorney <br />City Council Minutes 14 July 15, 2008 <br />