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The Pleasanton Unified School District Board of Trustees received a report last week on the district’s proposal to declare nearly five acres of Donlon Elementary School’s field as surplus land and the possibility of selling or leasing that space in order to create affordable or workforce housing.
While the board did not take any action during the May 14 meeting, the trustees overwhelmingly voiced their support for both proposals.
“I look forward to declaring this (as) surplus property,” Board Vice President Laurie Walker said during the meeting. “Our essential workers and teachers, we need to give them an affordable house.”
Back in January, the school board appointed 10 people to the 7-11 Advisory Committee, which includes landowners, parents, teachers and administrators. In the past, PUSD appointed others to similar 7-11 committees to make determinations on surplus land.
This time, the committee was tasked with reviewing and making a recommendation on what to do with approximately 4.7 acres of an unused portion of the Donlon Elementary School field bordered by Denker Drive and Payne Road.
During the presentation, Kathy Narum — chair of the 7-11 committee — explained how the area of the field in question is not used by students, is fenced off to prevent student access and the field is not irrigated or maintained.
According to Narum, the advisory group held several public hearings and worked on determining the “needs of the district” when considering its recommendation.
Some of the data that led the committee to its decision, Narum said, was the projected resident count in 2032 would equal about 569 while the school’s total potential capacity — inclusive of new transitional kindergarten classrooms currently being built, is about 780 students.
Other data that Narum went over also emphasized the point that Donlon is a large school and can fit a high number of students, even without the 4.7 acres of unused field.
“The takeaway here is that even selling off the 4.7 or deeming the 4.7 as surplus, this is still a very large campus based on its capacity,” Narum said.
She said that was very important to the committee because they wanted to make sure there would still be adequate room for the students to play and do activities. Narum also said the school is currently running at about 80% total student capacity and is projected to hover around that percentage for the next seven years.
Given some fluctuations, the committee considered the possibility of an increase in student enrollment but, according to Narum, the district in that case would either revise its boundaries to disburse students to neighboring schools or add additional classrooms to Donlon.
Based on all that information, Narum said the advisory group unanimously found the excess field to be surplus land and is recommending the district sell or lease the property. She also said the committee is recommending that the district consider pushing for workforce housing, if it does end up selling or leasing the excess field.
According to Narum, around 40 people attended the two 7-11 committee meetings in March and about 20 people spoke during public comment. Of those attendees, Narum said several emphasized the need for affordable housing in Pleasanton. Others also said any new home construction in that area should match the size and feel of the existing neighborhood.
However, others also shared several concerns they had regarding traffic, pedestrian safety and electrical infrastructure needs that would come if additional housing was built there. Narum shared that as someone who lives in west Pleasanton, an area that has experienced significantly longer periods of power outages, she recognizes the concern of adding additional housing when the current houses don’t seem to be supported by the city’s power grid.
However, she also noted how the city recently engaged with PG&E to begin addressing those concerns.
Most of these points came up again during last week’s school board meeting where several people strongly advocated for affordable or workforce housing to be built on top of that excess field space.
One of those speakers was Terry Young, a 30-year Pleasanton resident whose son attended Donlon years ago. She said as someone who has seen that field go unused for so long, she really wants to see that land be put to good use which, to her, means using it for affordable or workforce housing.
“There’s a housing crisis in the Tri-Valley area,” she said.
Young and other speakers went on to say how younger families — particularly ones with children — cannot afford to live in Pleasanton and noted how adding more affordable housing could even bring PUSD’s enrollment numbers up.
Trustee Charlie Jones said he backs declaring the land as surplus and supported the idea of vying for affordable and workforce housing being a renter himself and seeing his own parents have to move out due to not being able to afford living in Pleasanton post-retirement.
“I believe that it is incredibly important that people be allowed to work where they live,” Jones said. “The people who support and serve this community, deserve to also live in this community.”
PUSD assistant superintendent of business services Ahmad Sheikholeslami said the district could look at utilizing any funds from the sale or lease of the Donlon property for workforce housing development in other areas of the city but noted that those discussions would come later down the road.Â
He also said there could be an option where the district could look at rezoning and increasing the density of units in that particular plot of land but added that it could only be done if the district leases the land, not if it sells to a developer.
Board President Kelly Mokashi, when asking about the type of housing that would be allowed at Donlon, confirmed that the area is zoned for single-family housing with a max height of two stories.
A handful of speakers who were worried about the additional housing adding to traffic and pedestrian safety concerns — as well as skepticism over why the school even needs the additional revenue that would be generated from selling or leasing the land — also spoke during the meeting. Some of the traffic concerns were about speeding, lack of crosswalks and stop signs.
“Most of us are not against the idea of selling the land and having housing on it,” said Donlon parent Beth Thompson, referring to the larger parent population at the school. “But we are really, really concerned about safety.”
She referred to the large number of students who use the back area of the school — where the unused field is located — to enter or exit the campus and how the extra housing could make things more difficult, in regards to pedestrian safety. According to staff, all of that traffic and safety assessment would come up during any future planning process if the board does eventually declare the land as surplus.
Trustee Mary Jo Carreon said she sympathized with the speakers who want to see more affordable housing because, as a mom, she wants to see her son move back to Pleasanton. However, she also said she agrees that safety needs to be a top priority when those discussions come up in the future.
“Kids need to (have) a safe environment,” Carreon said.
According to Narum, the next steps in this process would be having staff present a resolution to the board in June declaring the excess field as surplus; notifying agencies about the surplus land and giving them the opportunity to purchase it at market rate; and working with labor partners to begin the process of selecting a developer.
