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Stepping down
Termed out, Dublin mayor Janet Lockhart reflects on city, Tri-Valley accomplishments

by Jeb Bing

Once an undistinguished step-sister to the fast growing neighboring cities of Pleasanton and Livermore in the last half of the 20th century, Dublin today is a retail, entertainment and smart housing that is being recognized nationally for municipal leadership in the 21st century.

Much of the credit goes to Mayor Janet Lockhart who leaves office Dec. 2 and to her predecessor, former Mayor and State Assemblyman Guy Houston (R-15th), who helped steer Dublin toward the growth and economic success it's seeing today.

In fact it was Houston who persuaded Lockhart to run for a City Council seat in 1996. She had worked hard as a community volunteer to back Measure B, which won voter approval for annexing an unincorporated tract of land called East Dublin. The area, where much of the city's recent growth has occurred, includes land from Dougherty Road east to Doolan Canyon, from I-580 to the Contra Costa County line.

"I thought that land would be important to the future of Dublin and worked hard to assemble a citizens' campaign to support the council's effort to annex it," Lockhart recalled. "That got me thinking politically and looking at other ways to support my community. The council was the next step."

Politics and ballot-box campaigns were from the thinking of Lockhart when she and her husband Steve moved to Dublin in 1972 to raise their four children, Wendy, Brian, Karen and Jennifer. There were pitfalls ahead. Jennifer, "who would be 36 now," Lockhart said, was diagnosed with a brain tumor when she was 12 years old and was just starting at Wells Middle School. Doctors at UC San Francisco Medical Center gave her only a short time to live, but the Lockharts prevailed, vowing not to let her die in a hospital room. They brought her home and with round-the-clock and specialized care, Jennifer came out of her coma and lived for another 1-1/2 years, "laughing and sharing time with her friends and giving us another year and a half to be with her before she passed away."

Wendy, the oldest, who had health problems, died in January 2007 at the age of 43.

The other two are married. Brian married Cindy Brinkman, his high school sweetheart from Dublin and the two now live in Colorado and have two children. Karen, now Karen Stirling, lives with her husband Bruce, both of them employed by the sheriff's department, and has three children.

It was the children that first introduced Janet Lockhart to civic and community affairs, taking a job as a volunteer coordinator for an elementary school, earning $100 a month. Later she joined the Dublin Chamber of Commerce and was elected to its board of directors. One of her assignments was to serve as liaison to the City Council, which meant she attended every meeting for about four years. By the time she was elected to the council in 1996, she had a good understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing the now-growing city.

"I think Dublin is a very exciting place to live and work these days," Lockhart said. "It's a wonderful feeling. The community feeling has never changed. We've been a small town forever and I don't care how big our population gets, we'll always be the smallest city in the valley."

Sandwiched between already-fixed boundaries, she expects the residential building boom to continue for a while, but then level off, leaving Dublin with a population of about 60,000, probably 20,000 less than Pleasanton at buildout and as much as 40,000 under Livermore's.

Among her accomplishments are Hacienda Crossings, a vibrant retail center at Hacienda Drive and the freeway, and hundreds of apartments and condos within walking distance of the Dublin-Pleasanton BART station, which she calls smart growth.

She has also championed the funding and development of the new West Dublin-Pleasanton BART station now under construction over the 580 freeway, near the Foothill Road-San Ramon Boulevard overpass. Along with the station, Lockhart and the council have approved a major office and retail center that will include a hotel and apartments, probably in a 10-story building near the station, with a new downtown planned from the station north to the area where the Target store is located, with new businesses and offices in between.

She calls it a super-block, that will actually stretch for several blocks, bordered by San Ramon Valley, Amador Valley and Dublin boulevards and Village Parkway.

Two years ago, Lockhart opposed a plan for an auto service center nearby, arguing that Dublin's days of hosting those kinds of businesses in the downtown center were over. Today, a new building with offices on top and retail on the ground floor occupy that site with Starbucks anchoring another new retail center across the street.

Apartments and condos over retail store have become familiar land use plans under Lockhart's leadership, with those kinds of structures near a new Safeway store at Tassajara and Dublin Boulevard, and under construction at the site of the former Pac 'N Save grocery to the west. Phase Three of the Emerald Glen park area will include two swimming pools in a new aquatic center and a community center, with another tall office and residential building planned over one of the pools to provide an indoor-outdoor recreational area that can be used year around.

Another commercial and retail development has been approved across from Hacienda Crossings, which Lockhart said will be the new jewel of the city's smart planning, with a major hotel, office buildings, restaurants and an open air shopping center. Whole Foods and eventually a new Kaiser Permanente Medical Center are planned nearby.

Perhaps Lockhart's greatest influence on Dublin and the Tri-Valley is her cooperative work with neighboring cities. Once involved in onerous lawsuits over land use, traffic and development, Lockhart met with Mayors Tom Pico of Pleasanton and Marshall Kamena of Livermore to form a three-city compact.

"The three of us came on board about the same time," she said. "We met and agreed the legal battles had to stop. We built a friendship that continues today with (Pleasanton Mayor) Jennifer Hosterman that has enabled our cities to work together to solve problems. I hope it continues after I leave and when their terms of office are also up."

Through Lockhart's efforts, the mayors of San Ramon and Danville, although their cities are in Contra Costa County, also participate in joint meetings. The five mayors also join together for occasional trips to Washington to discuss Tri-Valley needs with federal legislators.

Lockhart also believes that the expanding retail centers of the Tri-Valley are needed to serve an ever-growing number of commuters who pass through this area on their way to work and back again to their homes.

"If you look at Dublin, Pleasanton and Livermore, none of us really look alike," she said. "Pleasanton has its historic downtown and Stoneridge Mall; Livermore has a new downtown and soon a major outlet center off the freeway; Dublin has a major movie theater and outdoor shopping centers which are quite different from what you find in the other two cities.

"I think there's something for everybody here where we all live."

Posted by Not a Janet Lockhart fan, a resident of the Another Pleasanton neighborhood neighborhood, on Sep 12, 2008 at 2:46 pm

Sorry Jeb,

Your 'cover story' is more of an op ed, rather than a news story on Mayor Lockhart's impending end to her tenure as Dublin's mayor.

While I admire and respect the elaboration on the personal tragedies and struggles she and her family has endured, the decisions she and her City Councilmembers have made over the years have arguably helped promote the ugly, non-stop development of the Tri-Valley. In other words, not everyone's a fan of what she has done over the years.

What's occurred in Dublin is anything but "smart growth", and Dublin certainly doesn't look like a "small town" anymore--just another very poorly designed and planned suburban sprawl-type city. In a word, it's ugly.

East Dublin is awful. Sprawl, high-rise apartment buildings, poorly designed housing tracts, and a very poorly designed shopping center in Hacienda Crossings that attracts lots of crime on a regular basis.

She got one thing right, though. Pleasanton definitely doesn't look like Dublin, thank goodness.

The only folks that are really going to miss her are the developers, who've been feeding at the trough for years. Maybe Dublin will finally become a city that no longer represents a city that never saw a development proposal that they DIDN'T like.

One can only hope.

In conclusion, please, Jeb, save your editorials for the editorial page, instead of trying to pass off to readers as 'news', i.e., statement of facts. This cover story clearly isn't.

Posted by Steve, a resident of the Birdland neighborhood, on Sep 14, 2008 at 10:31 am

I would have to agree. While growth is inevitable, when properly planned, it should not impact the community in a negative way, as 'East' Dublin has been planned. Sure, the tax dollars are good for Dublin, but at what cost to Dublin and the surrounding residents through gridlock traffic, crime, and building city type housing that assumes very few people have or drive a car. To call it 'smart planning' is quite frankly absurd and a joke.

Posted by Historian, a resident of the Another Pleasanton neighborhood neighborhood, on Sep 14, 2008 at 11:21 am

I hate that you have rewritten history with this story.

When Pico and Kamena met with Dublin it was to beg them not to over build. They warned of the ascetic, crime, and traffic consequences. Dublin said that Pleasanton and Livermore were just jealous of the tax revenue.

PW Friday, September 5, 2008,

"In consecutive years, the eastbound and westbound portions of 580 from Pleasanton to Livermore have ranked in the top four most congested roadways in the Bay Area."Web Link

We are all living with the consequences of Dublin's (Housten and Lockhart) greed!!!!!

Posted by Wes, a resident of the Country Fair neighborhood, on Sep 15, 2008 at 9:30 am

The only thing Lockhart has done is creat a giant problem for the tri valley. When all that high density starts to fall apart dublin will be the slum of the east bay.

Posted by Pete, a resident of the Another Pleasanton neighborhood neighborhood, on Sep 16, 2008 at 11:39 pm

Delay is preferable to error, that was not Dublin's motto. Information is the currency of democracy, what? you ask.We actually made decisions with information?

Posted by Hope not, a resident of the Downtown neighborhood, on Sep 17, 2008 at 1:49 pm

Does anyone know what happened at the Council meeting last night?

I heard that our City Council voted to give the green light for high density housing in Hacienda.

Maybe we will look like Dublin soon.

Posted by Stacey, a resident of the Amberwood/Wood Meadows neighborhood, on Sep 17, 2008 at 2:26 pm

What?! 5,000 people didn't show up to voice their opposition against this?

Posted by Bob, a resident of the Danbury Park neighborhood, on Sep 17, 2008 at 4:05 pm

If it was a citywide vote it would have been defeated by more than 5,000 votes.

Posted by Jerry, a resident of the Oak Hill neighborhood, on Sep 18, 2008 at 1:14 am

Yep, 4/5th's of the council gave the developer the OK. Sullivan voted "No". Said he felt the housing associated with this project, since it counts against the housing cap, could be put to better use in later projects. He made some other interesting points but it seemed the other councilmembers thought this is a good project. McGovern also had several interesting suggestions to enhance the project.

There was some concern about a "flyover" that could possibly wipe out some of the guest parking.

From what I could see of the design drawings on TV30, to me, the building didn't look all that attractive. Seemed to have lots of balconeys and overhangs. Reminded me of what going on in Dublin.

Includes office, retail, and low/moderate income housing(could be wrong but I seem to recall 309 units total), if $850 month for a one bedroom apartment can be called low income.

Posted by Stacey, a resident of the Amberwood/Wood Meadows neighborhood, on Sep 18, 2008 at 7:48 am

Did Sullivan happen to describe what would be a "better use" for him?

Posted by Julie, a member of the Foothill High School community, on Sep 18, 2008 at 8:54 am

This project was not Hacienda it was across from the mall adjacent to the new BART station, 350 units. It will be a peek at what is to come in Hacienda.

This will bring families that will take anything to get their kids out of the crappy communities and schools in the Bay area into Pleasanton.

More kids, NO ROOM in our Schools! Great planning PUSD!

Posted by Jerry, a resident of the Oak Hill neighborhood, on Sep 18, 2008 at 11:54 pm

I'm not sure he fully explained how his "better use" is related to later projects.

He did say he was concerned this housing, since it would be located alone in a "business park atmosphere"(my term), would create a community that would be isolated away from the traditional community setting, or words to that effect. When the housing was discussed I wondered who would purchase this type housing but it was touted as "carbon footprint friendly" since there will be retail and a grocery store(Safeway)on site with Stoneridge Mall and BART in easy walking distance. Don't think I'd like to live there.