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Letter: Reasonable compromise

Dear Editor,

Be sensible about Oak Grove.

Oak Grove will add 51 home sites to approximately 200 homes in Kottinger Ranch. The city will receive school fees and property taxes as with all new development, and 496 acres of open space which is unique to Oak Grove. Anyone who builds a home in Pleasanton pays $8.63 per square foot to the Pleasanton Unified School District. Assuming an average 5,000-square-foot home in Oak Grove, that is over $2 million and likely much more. There is almost zero chance there will ever be a single 12,500-square-foot home, even if such an unprecedented monstrosity were proposed.

Kottinger Ranch homes average somewhere between 3,000 square foot and 4,000 square foot. Perhaps homes in Oak Grove may be larger on average: 4,000 square feet to 6,000 square feet? The land is both zoned residential and included in the General Plan for up to 98 homes. A compromise to allow 51 vs. 98 homes with nearly 500 acres of open space in return seems to me to be the sensible thing to do. I am voting Yes on D, not because I want 51 more large homes but because I believe it is a reasonable compromise for the greater community.

Jon Harvey, 13-year resident of Kottinger Ranch