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The Pleasanton Planning Commission will be voting to approve an application for a local developer to build 27 single-family homes and a park along Vineyard Avenue between Thiessen Street and Manoir Lane, during Wednesday’s commission meeting.
Also known as the Neal Property, the approximately 10.64-acre site had been previously zoned for housing as part of the city’s sixth Housing Element cycle — the land previously belonged to the Pleasanton Unified School District before it sold the land.
The city’s zoning administrator had approved the application to move the housing development forward on March 18 and now staff will be bringing the project back to the commission for approval of the Vesting Tentative Map.
According to a staff report written by associate planner Emily Carroll, a Vesting Tentative Map “confers a vested right to proceed with a development in substantial compliance with the ordinances, policies, and standards in effect at the time an application for the map is deemed complete.”
“Staff has found the Vesting Tentative Map for the project application to be complete and is forwarding it to the Planning Commission for its review,” Carroll stated in the report.
The commission is allowed to authorize the map in order to move the project forward in the development process, however the City Council still has the right to appeal or review the project if it chooses to do so at a future meeting.
Several years ago PUSD wanted to look at its surplus property and identify sites to place on the city’s latest Housing Element. Eventually, the city worked out the specifics with the district and PUSD ultimately sold the property to San Ramon-based Trumark Homes, LLC — after a different developer backed out.
Since Trumark Homes took over the project a year ago, the council approved amendments to the city’s Vineyard Avenue Corridor Specific Plan in order to allow the property to be used for housing and it also approved a resolution to allow for the project’s open space area to “have a split configuration based on neighbor comments.”
The current plan for the proposed 3-acre park is to split it into more than one space within the 10-acre site, according to the staff report.
Carroll also notes in the staff report that the city has acknowledged previous concerns that were raised by neighbors in the area, such as traffic volume, speeding on Vineyard Avenue and the “ability to make safe turns from side streets.”
She stated in her report that concerns regarding illicit activity and loitering in the project vicinity were noted as well.
And while she stated that the city’s zoning administrator considered these issues as part of their project review, the traffic conditions and the addition of “project-related traffic do not meet the warrants to allow the City to require installation of a traffic signal at this location.”
“Appropriate striping modifications and other improvements will be made to safely accommodate project traffic and pedestrian and bicycle users in accordance with the city’s standards,” Carroll stated in her staff report. “With respect to the positioning of bollards on the south end of the loop road, the zoning administrator supported the proposed site plan that includes bollards on both ends of the loop road based on its conformance to the Fire Department’s requirement for access and turnarounds for its vehicles.”
The Planning Commission meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Wednesday (March 26). The full agenda can be accessed here.
Why are we adding more people if the town can’t support the current? With the budget cuts, we have to scale back services, this makes no sense