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The Pleasanton Planning Commission will be looking to approve an application to demolish the Harvest Valley Christian Church and its affiliated daycare on Hopyard Road in order to construct nine three-story residential buildings during Wednesday’s commission meeting.
According to the staff report written by Diego Mora, an associate planner for the city, the proposed housing development aims to build 57 condominium units made up of 48 townhomes and nine apartments. Nine one-bedroom units in the proposed development would also be deed-restricted to lower-income households.
“The project provides 57 housing units, including nine affordable housing units, which assists the city in meeting its housing goals,” Mora stated in the report. “Although not a basis for approval or denial of the project, staff finds the building design and overall landscaping, open space to be attractive and the architectural style, finish colors, and materials will complement the surrounding development and generally conform to the design review requirements.”
In October 2022, Catalyst Development Partners LLC submitted a preliminary review application to build its development on top of the Harvest Valley church which is located on 3200 Hopyard Road.
The project site, which is approximately 2.99 acres, is listed under the city’s sixth Housing Element cycle sites inventory. Originally, the site was slated to provide 44 moderate-income housing units but now the proposed development will instead aim to create 48 above-moderate income units and nine lower-income units.
“As proposed, the project exceeds the inventory’s estimates by offering nine more units for lower-income residents and 48 more units for above-moderate income households,” according to mora’s report. “Simultaneously, the proposal falls short by 44 units for moderate-income households per the Housing Element projections.”
However, according to the report the city’s Housing Element site inventory allows for a surplus of 56 units beyond the designated 894 moderate income units and that by approving the project, it would not require the city to rezone any additional sites in order for the city to meet its moderate income unit requirement under the state-mandated Regional Housing Needs Assessment.
The 48 townhomes will range from three to four bedrooms that would be built in clusters of six or seven side-by-side units that each have an attached two-door garage. Those units would range from approximately 1,691 to 2,378 square feet.
Nine of those townhomes would also have a 565-square-foot one-bedroom condominium apartment attached in the style of a duplex, with its own one-car garage. Those are the nine apartments that would be for low-income residents.
Each of the buildings will be constructed using Santa Barbara Mission-style architectural designs, which are characterized by concrete tile sloped roofs, stucco, prefabricated pipes and arch details, according to the report.
The project would also include roughly 38,600 square feet of common open space, two private streets, a bicycle storage area and six surface guest parking spaces.
“The common open space would include amenities such as a bocce ball court, picnic tables, barbeque stations, and a paved seating/dining area,” according to the report. “The central common open space is approximately 7,081 square feet, and there is a total of approximately 38,648 square feet of group open space, including a total of approximately 1,876-square-foot turf area.”
The developer is also proposing to remove 27 of the 33 trees on the site — 115 new trees will, however, be planted as part of the project’s landscaping.
According to Mora’s report, the city notified the surrounding property owners who are within a 1,000-foot radius of the site about the development application and the developer also posted a project notification sign at the site.
However, at the time the report was published staff had received several comments from neighbors who received the notification who expressed concerns about the project.
“Noticed neighbors expressed concern to the project’s size and scale, privacy, traffic volumes, parking, noise (from traffic and new residents), green space, exclusion of bus stop for children and building separations for the purpose of emergency vehicles,” Mora stated in the report.
Despite the concerns, staff is still recommending that the planning commission approve the design review of the application, approve the Vesting Tentative Tract Map and find that the project satisfies all the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act.
“As proposed and conditioned, staff believes findings can be made to approve the project, including findings of conformance with all applicable development standards,” Mora states in the staff report.
The commission will vote on approving the project as is or with conditions, or it can decide to deny the application.
The Planning Commission meeting is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. on Wednesday (Feb. 28) at the City Council chambers. The full agenda and project report can be accessed here.
So what happened at the Planning Commission meeting Wed night?
Was the project stopped? Paused? Approved?