A trio of developers will seek approval from the Planning Commission March 28 of their plan to build 51 individually-designed estate homes in the southeast hills of Pleasanton in a new high-end community to be called Oak Grove.
As part of their petition, the developers also have offered to give to the city of Pleasanton free of charge 497 adjoining acres of wooded land that they also own for public purposes.
If approved by the Planning Commission and then in April or May by the City Council, development of the historic site that was first settled by pioneer John Kottinger in the 1800s will finally be achieved.
The old Kottinger site was purchased in 1977 by three out-of-town landowners and developers: Jennifer Lin, Frederic Lin and Kevin Lin. In partnership with others, they built Kottinger Ranch, a distinctive community of high-priced custom homes along Hearst Drive and other streets off Bernal Avenue, unincorporated Alameda County land that was annexed into Pleasanton as the homes were built in the 1980s.
In 1992, the Lin family won City Council approval for an extension of Kottinger Ranch and Hearst Drive that would have added 86 homes and an 18-hole championship golf course in a new community to be called Kottinger Hills. The new residents of Kottinger Ranch were enraged and, garnering support from homeowner groups across Pleasanton, successfully turned down the development plan in a hard-fought referendum.
The Lin family came back 10 years later–in 2003–with this new plan for the 562 acres of open space above Kottinger Ranch that called for building 98 homes on 12 percent of the property and leaving almost 500 acres in open space.
That, too, proved too much development for the Kottinger Ranch Homeowners Association. With a new Planning Commission and City Council now publicly opposed to adding more major housing developments in the southeast hills, the Lin family, represented by Attorney Marty Inderbitzen and at the urging of City Manager Nelson Fialho, held a series of meetings with Bing Hadley, president of the Kottinger Ranch homeowners Association and others from the neighborhood. The proposal going to the Planning Commission on March 28 for 51 homes–down from 98–and 497 acres of open space to be given to the city, is a result of those meetings.
The Lin family, which has not appeared at any of the public meetings on Oak Grove, also has taken in James Tong of Charter Properties in Pleasanton as a partner. In addition to Inderbitzen, the developers also have hired former Mayor Tom Pico as a consultant, Nanette Leuschel, a marketing expert from San Francisco, and San Francisco land use architects Michael Fotheringham and Miles Berger as principal designers. Fotheringham also is the architect hired by the city of Pleasanton to design the “illustrative plan” for the 318 acres of public lands–called the Bernal Property–that was given to Pleasanton in 2000 by Greenbriar Homes and associates as part of a housing development plan.
“Oak Grove is situated on a beautiful, natural site with grassy, gently rolling hills and large stands of mature oak trees,” Fotheringham said. “It has been envisioned and planned as a quiet, environmentally integrated neighborhood situated within an open space preserve of native California oak woodlands and grasslands. Home sites were selected to best preserve the natural experience for both Oak Grove homeowners and local residents, and the development provides for the offer of a dedication of nearly 500 acres of open space parkland.”
“In addition, my years on the Design Review Board, Planning Commission and Town Council in Tiburon have taught me how guidelines should be flexible in terms of style but very tight in terms of controls,” he added. “Marty (Inderbitzen) said that was the kind of project Oak Grove should be and gave me full freedom to create a state-of-the-art set of guidelines.”
In order to ensure that the future homes blend well with the natural setting and with each other, the developers have pledged that new construction at Oak Grove must comply with strict architectural and landscape design guidelines created by two highly respected design professionals, Fotheringham and his associate architect, Miles Berger. Inderbitzen said that he expects Oak Grove will grow into what may become Pleasanton’s nicest neighborhood.
Although some homeowners in Kottinger Ranch said they would prefer no new homes in the hills above their community, homeowner association president Hadley and others said they will support the compromise plan they reached with the Lin family and its representatives. The Lins wanted 98 houses, homeowners and some on the City Council would prefer none. So 51 may be a compromise everyone can live with.
The gift of the 497 acres of open space–the largest land grant ever to Pleasanton–also fits in with longstanding plans by Mayor Jennifer Hosterman and City Councilman Matt Sullivan to create a 2,000-acre stretch of public open space the would wrap around Pleasanton’s south and east borders.
Trails to be built by the Oak Grove developers before the fifth home lot is sold will extend toward the proposed Lund Ranch development off Sycamore Creek Way and the flatlands owned by rancher Al Spotorno along Alisal Street in Happy Valley. Eventually, the two city officials hope to link by hiking and equestrian trails the city’s new Callippe Preserve Golf Course and open space to the East Bay Regional Park District’s Shadow Cliffs regional park.
Still, there were concerns expressed at the January public hearing by the Parks and Recreation Commission–mostly about added traffic on Hearst Drive and public disturbances in the new city parkland beyond.
Dolores Bengtson, retired director of Parks and Community Services, said she has heard from homeowners who believe that increased traffic on Hearst Drive will become a major problem.
“They are also concerned that this parkland and staging area will become an additional hangout for young adults,” she added. “It will be important for the commission to address these concerns upfront and support traffic controls for Hearst Drive, either with traffic signals or speed bumps, or both.”
Carolyn Newton of Smallwood Court in Kottinger Ranch said the community has experienced two fires, and is concerned about more.
“I live near open space and I see people all the time hiking into these steep hills to party and make campfires,” she said. “If the city provides trails and rests areas in a wonderfully remote location like this, I expect there will be a lot more juveniles going there and the danger of more fires concerns me. I think it would be unwise to build a staging area anywhere in our city.”
Another Kottinger Ranch homeowner, Christy Budenbender of Hearst Drive, said the initial plan she saw showed that the trails above her neighborhood were to be accessed only from Vineyard Avenue and the golf course, not from Hearst Drive.
Bengtson explained that those earlier designs were changed to make it easier for the public to reach the top of the Oak Grove open space by car, and then to either hike or “just sit and enjoy the view.”
“It’s absolutely beautiful up there,” she said. “But without a staging area everyone can reach, those who couldn’t climb the steep hills off Vineyard or along the trails would never be able to enjoy them. That’s probably the majority of us.”
The public hearing on the Oak Grove proposal starts at 7 p.m. March 28 in the City Council Chamber at the Civic Center, 200 Old Bernal Ave.
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