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Pleasanton’s Planning Commission voted last week to delay its decision on the proposed demolition of Harvest Valley Christian Church and its affiliated daycare on Hopyard Road in order to construct nine three-story residential buildings after commissioners heard almost two dozen speakers voice their disapproval of the project.
The backlash from residents who live in the Valley Trails Drive neighborhood stemmed from issues ranging from not being notified about the project and not having enough time to digest the plans, to worrying about how the complex won’t fit in with the aesthetic of the neighborhood and how it would negatively impact the overall quality of life for those residents.
“We moved here like five months ago … If I was aware of this project, I would never look at this house, look at this neighborhood, because it’s like a nightmare,” AJ Jahadakbar, a resident of the Valley Trails Drive neighborhood, said during the Feb. 28 commission meeting. “Imagine that you are in your backyard and you see a three-story building less than 20 feet from your house.”
Jahadakbar, along with his wife Parisa Bayati, said that they had moved to their home after falling in love with the house, the view from their backyard and the area overall, but that if this project ends up getting approved, not only will all of that go away but their property value will go down.
“This project is going to ruin our dream,” Bayati said. “With these mortgage rates these days, we cannot even sell our house when we have three or four years of construction close to our house.”
That’s why after hearing everyone’s discontent with the project, the commissioners voted 4-1 to have staff come back at their next meeting (March 13) and present more specific data on the traffic study that was conducted in relation to the project. Commission Chair Matt Gaidos dissented.
According to city staff, the traffic study that was used to assess the impacts of the project was conducted in February 2020, which offers pre-pandemic levels of travel data. However, after public comments, the commission majority indicated they wanted to have a deeper look at the traffic data before making a decision on approving the project.
The commission also asked for the developer to consider coming back with alternatives such as an exit for cars to leave the complex on Hopyard Road and additional parking spaces inside the complex.
However, while staff agreed to return with the city’s traffic engineer to show how the proposed project would affect traffic in the surrounding area, the commission was also reminded that the developer could choose to return with the project as it was originally proposed during the Feb. 28 meeting or it could choose to abandon ship on the project altogether — which could lead to future negative consequences.
“It would still have to comply with all of our development standards, except to the extent that they might be granted a waiver (but) yeah, there’s a possibility that a denser project could be proposed here,” community development director Ellen Clark told the commission.
Others on the commission also pointed out that Pleasanton is under state pressure to meets its assigned Regional Housing Needs Allocation tally of 5,965 new units — 2,758 of which are targeted toward lower-income households — over the next eight years, and that at the end of the day, these types of housing developments are more or less unavoidable.
“We see this project coming in (and) we should be prepared for more,” Commissioner Anurag Jain said. “We heard a lot of things from the group here, we’ll make a decision but at the same time … we are constantly threatened by the state. We are under immense pressure from the state to produce these housing (developments).”
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.Â
The proposed housing development aims to build 57 multi-family 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 in order to meet the city’s inclusionary zoning requirements and to qualify for waivers and concessions pursuant to the state housing density bonus law.
“48 three- and four-bedroom townhome-style units would be provided in clusters of six or seven side-by-side units, each with an attached two-car garage, with units ranging from 1,691 to 2,378 square feet,” Diego Mora, an associate planner for the city, told the commission. “Nine of the townhome-style units would have a second detached 565 square foot, one bedroom condo apartment unit in a duplex configuration with a one car garage.”
As for the Harvest Valley church itself, Pastor Derek Meekins told his congregation during a sermon on Feb. 11 that the church is already going through the permit process for moving the church to a new location at 5587 Sunol Blvd.
According to the Feb. 11 sermon recording, Meekins said COVID forced the church to close its preschool and the church had to spend through its emergency savings. But when he rediscovered a letter that a developer had sent the church seven years ago asking if they wanted to sell the property, he decided to make the call.
Then after working with some lawyers, he said that a contract was reached where the developer of the property would pay the church in installments — if the housing development is approved — which would cover the cost of relocating and would also wipe away the church’s debt and provide even more money for its future.
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.
The units will also be for sale, not to rent, according to Bruce Myers, the project applicant.
Each of the buildings will be constructed using Santa Barbara Mission-style architectural designs, Mora said, and will include roughly 38,600 square feet of common open space, two private streets, a bicycle storage area and six surface guest parking spaces.
After the commission listened to staff’s presentation and went through some high-level questions on certain aspects of the project such as traffic and state laws that didn’t give the city too much flexibility on making decisions about the project’s design, 23 residents who lived in the Valley Trails area voiced their discontent with the project.
Some said they didn’t receive any notification of the project, they didn’t have the opportunity to weigh in on the design, the three-story buildings didn’t fit into the neighborhood, and all of the proposed units will increase traffic congestion, crime and people parking in areas where they’re not supposed to park.
“When I compare the neighborhood with the monstrosity of this complex that is being proposed, I feel (it) is out of character … for Pleasanton and for this neighborhood,” said Kaveh Nikpour, who lives two blocks from the proposed project.Â
“I understand that the developer wants to squeeze every dollar out of the land that they have purchased by jampacking 57 units in this,” Nikpour added. “But just because they are asking for this doesn’t mean they should be granted. I think we will solve a lot of problems by reducing the number of units from 57, let’s say down to 26, make it two story buildings and allow less people to live here.”
However, Myers said that people have to keep in mind that the number of units could have been a lot higher.
“The current general plan and zoning would allow 87 units to be built on this property. That’s most likely going to be some kind of apartment building,” he said. “With the city’s 15% inclusionary housing ordinance, the property would also qualify for an additional 35% density bonus, which is another 30 units. So 117 apartments could realistically be built under the current laws on this site.”
“The city would have to assess that and look at the environmental impacts,” he added. “But these numbers that I’m quoting are true numbers. I’m not sugar coating these numbers.”
