Developer drops plans for offices on Bernal property Developer drops plans for offices on Bernal property (March 12, 2004)

Housing-on-Bernal conflict again raises its ugly head
by Jeb Bing

A San Jose developer has abandoned plans to build an eight-building office park on 40 acres along the I-680 freeway at Bernal Avenue, telling Pleasanton officials that there's no market for more office space now or in the foreseeable future.

The announcement, made at a Planning Commission meeting on housing issues, produced a range of suggestions from planners and local residents on how the property could be developed. Some suggested allowing the construction of affordable senior units that once were proposed for the main part of the Bernal property, while others insisted on leaving it zoned for offices to be available when that market recovers.

The decision by office park developer South Bay Construction and Development Co. ends a long and carefully crafted development agreement between the cities of Pleasanton and San Francisco, the Bernal property's former owner. That agreement allowed Greenbriar Homes to acquire the 502-acre undeveloped Bernal property three years ago for $126 million with Pleasanton officials allowing the 750,000-square-foot, four-story office park buildings along with 581 homes and apartments. Those homes have since been built or are under construction. As part of the deal, Greenbriar gave 318 acres of the site to the city of Pleasanton for public uses at no charge.

Scott R. Trobbe, a South Bay Construction's principal partner, said his firm is giving up on Pleasanton reluctantly.

"We sincerely believed in this project and believe in it today, but we need a quicker time frame for completion than we are faced with," he said. "Unfortunately the office building market is just not there and we don't see the kind of activity that makes us feel that it's going to turn around quickly."

Trobbe said he has had calls from residential developers who might be interested in building apartment buildings on the site. He said he has discussed those plans with City Manager Deborah McKeehan and City Planning Director Brian Swift, although no specific plans or sales efforts have been made.

"On the basis of those meetings, I can understand that there may very well be enough reason to give a look at this property in terms of the best buildings that it might provide, with the possibility of providing several types of different housing on the site, whether it be senior housing or affordable apartments," Trobbe said. "Given the size of the property - approximately 40 acres - it would seem to me that there would be an excellent opportunity to achieve some of the housing requirements the city is facing."

But planning commissioners Brian Arkin and Matt Sullivan rejected that suggestion, arguing that Measure V, which voters approved in 2002, prohibits any additional housing on the Bernal property beyond the 581 units authorized in the 2001 sales agreement.

"As a community, we made a lot of compromises to approve that housing," Arkin said. "I just can't see ever being able to explain to the community how we could allow more housing on Bernal."

"Besides, it's amazing how quickly things can turn around," he added. "The company I work for now was warning six months ago they were thinking of closing us down because they couldn't sell anything. Now we are running double shifts and can't push out the material fast enough. People are saying the recession is going on for a long period of time, but in two years these office buildings may be a go."

Sullivan agreed.

"The day after the City Council ever approved housing on this site, we'd have another referendum to stop it," he said. "I couldn't support housing there."

At the meeting, planning commissioners also reviewed undeveloped acreage in Hacienda Business Park, on Staples Ranch and a smaller site adjacent to Kaiser's medical center near the Stoneridge Shopping Center.

Swift said his planning staff has determined that current housing development plans would give the city about 27,300 units when completed, 1,700 units below the 29,000-unit, voter-approved housing cap. He estimated that an additional 1,400 housing units in the low- to very-low-income and affordable brackets would satisfy a state housing requirement which Pleasanton agreed to, allowing the city to achieve final buildout with 28,600 units.

Where to place those units and the question of how much additional construction of large homes to permit in south Pleasanton are issues facing city officials as they update the 1996 General Plan. Public meetings on the General Plan update are expected to continue throughout the year and well into 2005.

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