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The Pleasanton City Council will be reviewing an application Tuesday to rebrand the Sunoco gas station, located on the corner of First and Ray Street, to a Shell Gas station.
According to the June 16 City Council staff report, the dais will have to decide whether it wants to uphold city staff’s recommendation to deny the rebranding application, or if it wants to go against staff and approve the application with certain changes, which is what the city’s planning commission is recommending.
“The City Council may, based on its de novo review of the application, elect to approve the project, either consistent with the Planning Commission’s determination, in alignment with the applicant’s proposal, or with further modifications,” staff noted in Tuesday’s report. “If electing to approve the project, staff would recommend the City Council adopt a resolution with the same or similar findings and conditions of approval made by the Planning Commission.”
Back in September 2025, Guy Houston — former state assemblymember and Dublin mayor — submitted a sign design review application with the city on behalf of the gas station’s property owner to rebrand the gas station, which is located at 4191 First St., and convert it into a Sunoco gas station. Before Sunoco, it was previously a 76 gas station.
According to staff, that original application sought to install a new monument, wall, canopy and pump signage, all with Sunoco branding.
However, according to staff, the 2025 application was deemed incomplete. Tuesday’s report stated that staff expressed “general support for the site upgrade” but at the same time, they had requested a “reduction in franchise branding colors on the canopy fascia” in order to be consistent with the current gas station canopy.
After some time and further discussion, the applicant resubmitted the application in January and switched brands from Sunoco, to Shell Gasoline. But even though the branding change helped address some of the staff’s concerns regarding the branding colors, it did not address all of their issues.
“While the revised package reduced franchise color coverage compared to the earlier Sunoco proposal, the Shell Gasoline canopy design still featured approximately 66% yellow and red franchise branding color,” staff noted in Tuesday’s report. “Although staff indicated the project could be approved with reductions in the amount of branded color elements on the canopy, the applicant declined to make such changes.”
According to Tuesday’s report, staff thought the proposed canopy would “create an overly franchise-brand-forward visual emphasis that detracts from the intended Downtown entry character and does not reinforce the site’s relationship to the City’s broader aesthetic context and natural/visual setting.”
That’s why in February the city’s zoning administrator denied the proposed signage application, which then prompted the applicant to appeal the decisions and send it first to the planning commission for further review.
The commission heard the appeal on May 13 and approved it, with certain caveats. According to the staff report, the commission outlined two conditions of approval: the first stipulates that the “height of the Shell Gasoline corporate branding color band shall not exceed 50% of the total canopy fascia height” while the second states that any canopy lighting other than the underlighting will automatically be turned off every day at 10 p.m.
The council will now decide if it wants to uphold the city’s denial of the application or if it agrees with the planning commission’s recommendation to approve the rebranding. This gas station rebrand discussion is now the second that the council has heard following the contentious Gulf Gas Station signage debate late last year.
The City Council meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Tuesday (June 16). The full agenda can be accessed here.
In other business:
* The council will also be voting on approving a policy that would establish a process for public meeting disruptions and that would require the council to offer residents the opportunity to participate in public meetings remotely.
This policy, according to staff, is required in order to adhere to Senate Bill 707, which was signed into law last year. The law, according to Tuesday’s report, establishes new requirements under the Brown Act for agencies like the city to “provide access and allow participation in certain public meetings, including remote access beginning July 1, 2026.”
“This update applies to the City of Pleasanton’s City Council meetings and requires the City Council to adopt a policy to address interruptions to telephonic or internet service,” the staff report states.
This comes after the previous City Council, in 2023, voted 3-2 to no longer give residents the ability to call in virtually during City Council meetings to make comments over Zoom or by phone.
* During the consent calendar portion of the meeting, city staff will be asking the council to approve and authorize the city manager to execute a $927,618, design professional services agreement with Kier and Wright Civil Engineers and Surveyors and approve related budget fund transfers in order to move forward with the El Charro Road Precise Roadway Alignment Project.
Items under the consent calendar are considered routine in nature and are typically approved by a single motion.
According to staff, the project aims to address a segment of El Charro Road — a north-south corridor in east Pleasanton — between Stoneridge Drive and Stanley Boulevard.
“The Precise Roadway Alignment Project will develop a technically defensible, precise roadway alignment that can serve as the basis for future project development, evaluating and incorporating elements including utility infrastructure, drainage, constructibility, cost, and environmental constraints,” the staff report states.
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