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Emergency preparedness, the stalled redevelopment plans for Stoneridge Shopping Center and the city’s core economic challenges were among the wide range of topics addressed last week by the two candidates vying to represent District 3 on the Pleasanton City Council.
Reena Gupta and Jamie Yee shared their visions for the city at a Sept. 29 forum, which was hosted by the Weekly and also featured District 1 candidates. The event drew a standing-room-only audience to the City Council chamber room at the Pleasanton Civic Center; it was also livestreamed.
Gupta, a small-business owner and business advocate, and Yee, a former Pleasanton school board trustee who currently works at the Alameda County Public Health Department, are running to succeed council member Julie Testa in representing District 3 on the city’s southwest side; Testa is running for mayor in the Nov. 3 election, seeking to unseat incumbent Jack Balch.
Both of the District 3 candidates said the city must continue educating residents about emergency preparedness in the wake of the Little Fire, which burned around 1,000 acres just southeast of the district on July 21.
Gupta applauded firefighters for their quick response but noted that fire season continues to pose a threat. She said she wants to ensure every household signs up for emergency alerts, that every neighborhood has mapped evacuation routes and that fire mitigation efforts continue.
Yee said there needs to be a larger discussion about the Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department, which she said is stretched thin due to low staffing. One solution she suggested was partnering with the East Bay Regional Parks District to work on fire mitigation.
Pleasanton’s economy was another key issue for both candidates.
Yee said that as a longtime resident, she finds it frustrating to travel to Livermore or Dublin to shop, something that ultimately takes local tax revenue away from the city. She said the city needs a long-term strategic plan to attract businesses both big and small while also supporting existing local business owners and ensuring they don’t get priced out.
“I know that rents are going up for a lot of them,” Yee said. “There’s hair salons and auto shops that are moving out of the area because they can’t afford the rents here, and most people I know don’t want to have to drive far away to get all their cars worked on or their hair done.”
Gupta agreed that the city needs bold economic reform in order to address its budget issues, and she proposed the city promote itself as a destination city for businesses.
“Let’s think big and think globally,” she said. “Let’s position Pleasanton as a bridge to the Bay Area for companies around the globe and make it easier to do business here.”
She also said the city should promote itself as a destination for weddings, conferences and other events.
Both candidates expressed support for Measure HH, a hotel tax increase on the November ballot. If approved, the tax rate will go from 8% to 12% gradually over the next two years.
Gupta said she supports the increase because “every penny counts.” However, she said, there are still three key things the city should do.
The first is spread awareness about who will be paying the tax; only people who purchase hotel rooms would be affected by the increase.
The second, she said, is to ensure transparency on how the money will be spent. She said the city’s top priority should be restoring services, such as reversing reductions in library hours. During her closing remarks, Gupta pledged to use her City Council member stipend of about $1,321 per month to support the Friends of the Pleasanton Library, a nonprofit that raises money for the library.
Lastly, Gupta said, the city needs to find ways to increase the occupancy rate because if people aren’t staying at local hotels, the tax won’t really mean anything.
“A tax on an empty hotel room generates nothing,” Gupta said. “Measure HH can generate revenue, (but) our bigger opportunity is growing the economic activity around it.”
Yee said she supports Measure HH because it’s “good money that we should take in.” But, like Gupta, she said the tax increase is not going to solve all of the city’s economic woes.
If elected, Yee said she wants to take a deeper look into what caused the city’s budget deficit, noting the city’s property- and sales-tax revenues have either slightly increased or remained mostly stable for the past several years.
“Something doesn’t add up,” Yee said. “I’m hoping that once I’m on (the) council, we can really start to unpack that.”
Both candidates largely saw eye-to-eye on the stalled redevelopment plans for Stoneridge Shopping Center.
The City Council in 2023 approved a policy framework for redeveloping the shopping center and surrounding area into a mixed-use property.
However, very little has happened since then, apart from the council approving an extension of the development agreement between the city and mall property owners in 2024 and a Danville-based real estate company purchasing the former Nordstrom building and a large surface parking lot earlier this year.
Gupta said she was a part of the city’s economic vitality committee when the redevelopment plan was being discussed, and she has been waiting since then to see something happen.
She said the site is one of the best locations in the city to develop, which is why she would like to see all of the mall property owners get together and decide on a concrete plan to move the project forward.
“Give them all the incentives that they need, brainstorm with them, tell them what we are missing and just make it happen,” Gupta said.
Yee said she’s lived in the city long enough to remember when the mall opened, adding that it’s sad to see the current state of the center. She said while she understands there are ownership challenges, the city has an opportunity to do something amazing with the redevelopment plans and should “get out of the way of the developers.”Â
“Let them come in and drive the project,” Yee said. “I feel like we need to let the people who know how to do these projects do their projects. I think sometimes too much government involvement is too much.”
Yee also said the city needs to rethink its inclusionary zoning policies and focus on producing attainable housing for younger people, adding that it’s sad that young adults who grew up in Pleasanton can’t afford to buy their own homes there. She noted she would like to take a look at the city’s deed-restricted, senior and affordable housing data before the city can continue planning for the future.
Gupta also acknowledged that the city is changing and said officials need to focus on shaping that change thoughtfully. She said that means making sure future housing projects are located in the right place, are scaled appropriately and benefit their surrounding communities.
She said the city needs to seriously consider how housing projects will affect traffic, water supply and the surrounding schools.
Regarding the city’s water supply, Gupta said safe drinking water was one of the top concerns she heard from residents. She said there are three things that matter when it comes to water: quality, cost and reliability.
Gupta acknowledged the two new groundwater wells that the city and Zone 7 are looking to build in order to address the PFAS chemicals, also known as forever chemicals, found in the city’s groundwater system. She also said that shouldn’t stop the city from looking into other technology to address PFAS that could be used to restore the city’s existing but contaminated wells.
Yee, on the other hand, said the city has made great strides in addressing the PFAS problem. However, she echoed Gupta in highlighting water-rate increases as a priority issue.
Yee said the city should look more into affordable ways to continue funding its Water Enterprise Fund and make sure it is not overcharging its residents with the new rates.
Among the other topics the District 3 candidates discussed at last week’s forum were annexing Castlewood into the city of Pleasanton, ensuring safe drinking water and where they stand on being endorsed by special interest groups.
A video of the forum can be found here.
