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The Pleasanton school board will be voting on reselling the district-owned Neal property located along Vineyard Avenue between Thiessen Street and Manoir Lane to a San Ramon-based housing developer for $34,695,000 during Thursday’s board meeting.
The board had previously sold the property, also known as the Neal property or the Vineyard site, to Landsea Homes of California back in December but because of a change in business focus, the developer decided to terminate the previous purchase agreement, according to the staff report.
Staff have since negotiated with Trumark Homes, LLC — a real estate developer that helped build the Goodness Village tiny homes for unhoused residents in Livermore — to instead sell the property to them with the same conditions listed under the purchase and sale agreement with Landsea Homes, according to staff.
“The district recommends that the board approve the proposal from Trumark,” according to the staff report. “The Landsea proposal was previously determined to be the most desirable, and Trumark is agreeing to purchase the property on the same price and terms.”
Apart from selling the property for $34,695,000, the terms of agreement state that the developer would have to pay $1.2 million for each residential lot that the city of Pleasanton approves in addition to the 27 lots that are already included in the agreement.
“The purchase price will be reduced by any costs to satisfy conditions imposed by the city to improve or dedicate land for park or vineyard purposes, with a cap on those costs to be agreed upon by the parties during the feasibility period,” according to the staff report.
Back in June of 2023, the board declared the Neal property as “exempt surplus land” following a determination from the district’s 7-11 advisory committee, which looks at land the district owns and makes recommendations on whether or not the district should keep or sell land it owns.
Following that, the district then made offers to government agencies to use the land for park, recreational or governmental purposes but did not hear back from any agency. The district then issued a request for proposal last October and received six proposals for the property — including ones from Landsea and Trumark.
After the board approved the agreement with Landsea in December, which became effective in January, the company had until March 2 to provide an approval notice. But because of changes in its business focus, the company did not provide the notice and terminated the agreement, according to staff.
However, since Trumark Homes was one of the six companies that submitted a proposal, the district renegotiated with them while keeping the same agreement terms it had with Landsea.
Some of the terms of the agreement include Trumark having a 60-day feasibility period to investigate the property and perform any necessary testing; making deposits to the district after the day the agreement takes effect, after the expiration date of the feasibility period and each first day of the month after the feasibility period; and having 50% of the deposits being released to the district six months after the agreement takes effect. The other 50% will be released nine months after the agreement takes effect, if approved on Thursday.
The board’s open-session meeting is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Thursday (March 14). Read the full agenda here.
In other business:
* District staff will be presenting the second interim budget report and projections for the 2023-24 operating budget, which reflects updates to the 2023-24 budget through Jan. 31 including updates to the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) estimate for 2024-25 and 2025-26.
The report stated that the district can maintain the required 3% in its budget reserves for the current fiscal year and through the 2025-26 fiscal year but that this fiscal year’s unrestricted operating deficit is currently projected at $3.69 million.
According to staff, the increased costs are a result of projected salary and benefit increases and contribution to special education. The report also shows revenue decreases for 2024-25 due to the COLA being projected to be 0.76% for this fiscal year and 0% for the next fiscal year.
The report also continues to include planned layoffs and reductions across the district.
* The board will be voting on approving an agreement to rent temporary portable classrooms for the construction of a temporary campus to house Village High School students while the district works on demolishing the school to build the new Educational Options Center.
After adding one time installation and removal fees along with 36 months of rent, the district will plan on spending a total of over $600,000 for the temporary classrooms, which will come out of the $395 million Measure I bond money that was passed so that the district could build the new center.
* The district’s Citizens Bond Oversight Committee, which is an independent oversight committee that makes sure bond revenues are spent on projects in the bond project lists, will be presenting its annual report to the board for Measure I and Measure I1.
