|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The Pleasanton Planning Commission unanimously approved the vesting tentative map for 27 single-family homes and a park to be built along Vineyard Avenue between Thiessen Street and Manoir Lane during its meeting last week.
Staff presented several ways the project had been updated in response to community feedback regarding traffic and public safety before the commissioners approved what they said was a satisfactory project design.
“It fits well within the neighborhood,” Commissioner Stephanie Wedge said during the March 26 meeting. “The project does check a lot of boxes … I’m happy with this project.”
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.
Referred to 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 property was previously owned by 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 had also recommended that the commission approve the vesting map.
Associate planner Emily Carroll said during the meeting that 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”.
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 be split into a dual park as a result of listening to the community.
The current plan for the proposed 3-acre park is to split it into more than one space within the 10-acre site, however, according to the city and the applicant the developer has submitted those plans parallel to the current approved design and they will bring the dual park design back to the commission for approval at a later date.
According to Carroll, the rest of the newly approved design plans include building two streets on the vacant piece of land as well as 27 market rate homes that will each have their own detached, accessible dwelling units — also known as ADUs.
The fact that these homes are going to be market rate because the developer paid in-lieu fees to opt out of building affordable housing was one point of concern for Commissioner Anurag Jain, who brought up previous discussions about the possibility of building more workforce housing in the city.
“The project does check a lot of other things — affordability is not one of those,” Jain said. “I’m happy to see the project come through and move forward but that’s generally the trend that we are seeing: state laws have created more housing, more market rate housing, (that) doesn’t help with the affordability in any way.”
Community development director Ellen Clark acknowledged the commissioner’s statement but she also noted that apart from changes in state law, the city’s own inclusionary zoning ordinance has also been updated to become more stringent in regards to the requirements that need to be met in order for developers to “fee out” of building affordable housing within their projects.
Clark also noted that while the developer’s in-lieu fees won’t directly help build physical affordable housing, they will help fund other housing programs within the city.
“This project will pay over a million dollars in affordable housing fees as part of its mitigation which … helps us to fund affordable housing programs and hopefully some construction at some point,” Clark said.
Some other points that were brought up during the meeting include several past concerns from the neighborhood surrounding the project site.
Carroll said that despite some concerns about traffic, the city’s traffic department found that there wasn’t a need to install a new traffic signal at the location but that the city will be requiring the developer to do some restriping and construction of buffer lanes that staff said should help narrow the lanes and make it safer for residents to maneuver through the area.
The design plan also includes specific set backs on the surrounding streets so that it will be easier for residents to see cars on the main roads before turning onto those roads.
Carroll also brought up the concerns from neighbors regarding unwanted activity on the vacant site and said the developer will be installing bollards to prevent people from driving behind the site. She also said general construction at the site in the future will help mitigate that unwanted activity.
“One of the things I appreciate, the work that has gone into being responsive to the community,” Commissioner Brandon Pace said during the meeting. “Continuing to work with the community on the park and the traffic … are going to continue to be some of the most important pieces.”
The project development team told the commission that they are still in the process of working through the new plan for the dual park but that if they are able to get all of their permits lined up by October, the goal is to start construction as soon as possible.
