Editorial Editorial (July 09, 2004)

Coming soon: A winning design for Bernal

After four years and hundreds of hours of debate by public task forces, in town meetings and before the City Council and its appointed commissions, civic leaders are about to bless a long-range comprehensive plan for developing the 318 acres of vacant public land on the Bernal property. Called a blueprint for the future of Bernal, the winning design will be selected next Saturday, July 17, by an independent jury of five land use specialists. They will make their decision from among five finalists out of a total of 24 land use planning and architectural firms that competed to produce the best design for Bernal. The jury's pick is expected to be ratified Aug. 17 by the City Council, which along with its commissions in public meetings has thoroughly reviewed and favorably commented on each of the five designs. The winning firm will be given a choice of accepting $10,000 as payment for its work or an option on a development contract that could extend out for 20-30 years with a budget in the millions of dollars.

The design competition, controversial at first, has won wide praise from city and civic officials. The plans were posted at the Bernal Block Party and in the Public Library, where more than 200 comments were submitted to city officials. These and suggestions from the council and commissions that reviewed the five finalists' plans are now being incorporated into their revised submissions due to Principal Planner and project coordinator Wayne Rasmussen next Friday in time for Saturday's judging. While far different from the multi-use plans originally suggested by task forces appointed to produce a preliminary development plan, these new professional plans still feature the key proposals, including lighted sports fields at the northeast corner of the site at Bernal Avenue and the Union Pacific Railroad tracks, a large civic arts center with classrooms and meeting rooms for music, art and community get-togethers, a teen center, 4-H field, day care center and an ACE train station, if the current station across from the Fairgrounds needs to be relocated. Gone from the plans are early proposals that included a high school, cemetery, church and large performing arts center. At the council's insistence, and with the subsequent endorsement of hundreds of residents at public hearings before all of the city commissions and civic organizations, the Bernal property will look like and be known as Pleasanton's community park, much like Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.

The jury's selection next Saturday and the council's anticipated acceptance a month later will bring to a close 70 years of debate over how Bernal should be developed. Purchased by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission in the 1930s for its water rights, the 502-acre parcel that extends south of the Bernal Avenue interchange on both sides of I-680 was long a working farm in the heart of a city rapidly building around it. Development plans ranged from 3,500 homes in the 1980s to 1,900 homes with a golf course in the 1990s. In March 2000, Pleasanton voters narrowly defeated a $50 million bond measure - Measure I - that would have purchased 430 acres of the land from San Francisco, with development to be allowed on the rest. Later that year, Greenbriar Homes led a coalition that paid San Francisco $126 million for the entire parcel, with an agreement that gave 318 acres free of charge to Pleasanton for public uses for the right to build 581 homes, apartments and an office center complex on the balance of the acreage. The homes and apartments have either been completed or are under construction; the office complex has been postponed.

In accepting the gift of the acreage from Greenbriar, outgoing Mayor Tom Pico said he wanted the newly acquired Bernal lands to become a public use legacy - a park with park-like amenities that will be available for generations to come. With the comprehensive design plans now moving forward, his dream and the hopes of the community are nearing reality.

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