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Still in court seeking OK for 51 homes, developers now asking for just 10
New plan for Oak Grove project before Planning Commission

by Jeb Bing

Even as legal arguments continue over the city's refusal to approve their bid to build 51 custom homes on their hillside Oak Grove property, the owners of the 562-acre site now have a new plan before the Pleasanton Planning Commission seeking to build only 10 homes there.

Landowners Frederic and Jennifer Lin, represented by developer James Tong, are seeking to subdivide the property into 10 large lots for single-family custom homes with no commonly held property or open space dedication. The lots would vary in size from 16 to 214 acres and would be accessed by way of a 25-foot-wide gated private road extending from the end of Hearst Drive, which is now barricaded.

Another gated emergency vehicle access road is proposed to connect the site to Grey Eagle Court in the Grey Eagle neighborhood, also a gated community located at the end of Crellin Road.

The Lins' plan was discussed by the Planning Commission on March 21, but no action was taken.

Meanwhile, the Lins' effort continues before the state Court of Appeal where they are asking the court to overturn a judgment in the Superior Court against their claim that a development agreement once signed by City Manager Nelson Fialho should allow them to build the 51-home development.

Numerous meetings have been held in the pre-hearing phase of the appeal with the Lins' San Francisco legal firm and Amrit Kulkarni, an attorney with the firm of Meyers/Nave, who has been hired by Pleasanton as outside counsel to argue against the Lins' appeal.

City Attorney Jonathan Lowell said no formal hearing date has been set by the Court of Appeal.

The Lins have tried several times over the last 13 years to gain approval for houses on the wooded, undeveloped property they own. At one time, they sought to build 98 homes there along with a golf course. That plan, as well as the much-reduced 51-home development plan proposed five years ago, also was rejected by voters in a referendum after the City Council had given its approval.

It is that last referendum on June 8, 2010, that is the focus of the Lins' current litigation. At that time, voters overturned the council's approval of the project in 2007, which came after several years of public meetings and hearings.