Back to the Table of Contents Page

Back to the Weekly Home Page

Classifieds

Publication Date: Friday, September 07, 2001

New plan for downtown: Keep it the same

A new plan for downtown Pleasanton would allow for business expansion, taller buildings and more residential units while also maintaining the century-old small town characteristics of the area.

Proposals in the new Downtown Specific Plan that now goes to city commissions and eventually the City Council for review and approval affect the design and uses of downtown buildings, business vitality, traffic, parking, parks and trails, and housing. It would replace the city's first specific plan for the district that was adopted in February 1989.

The new plan: ¥ Allows three-story buildings anywhere downtown providing that they meet strict design guidelines; ¥ Expands both Lions Wayside and John Delucchi downtown parks westward by covering the drainage channel behind them and relocating the bandstand near the Railroad Avenue fire station; ¥ Recommends eliminating parking on the west side of First Street to allow three traffic lanes, with two for northbound evening rush hour traffic; ¥ Creates mini-plazas on Main Street for lunch hour crowds, art exhibits and small performances; ¥ Adds off-street parking lots and even a parking garage to meet increased demand from shoppers and restaurant diners.

Gone from the plan are proposals to: ¥ Merge Main Street into the already congested Bernal/First Street/Sunol Boulevard intersection. Main Street will continue to dead end at Bernal, although a synchronized traffic light will be added. ¥ Allow the Pacific Railroad Association to route a proposed extension of the Niles Canyon Railroad into downtown Pleasanton. If the historic railroad is extended into Pleasanton, it would stop at Bernal. ¥ Require that all first-floor units on downtown buildings have retail stores only. While still encouraging ground floor retail only uses, the plan would let building owners decide how their properties are used based on market demand, not government rules.

The plan represents the work of 15 Pleasanton residents who were appointed to the Downtown Specific Plan Committee by the mayor and City Council. Working with them were Jerry Iserson and Wayne Rasmussen, both Principal Planners for the city of Pleasanton, and Gail Gilpin, the city's Economic Development Manager. Together, they held 35 full committee meetings, another 65 subcommittee meetings, and six town hall meetings.

"We reviewed all aspects of our downtown to develop a new 10-year plan that will preserve and enhance our historic downtown while also accommodating the dynamic changes taking place in 21st Century social and economic interests and the need for a mix of housing close to downtown," said Pamela Hardy, committee chairwoman. "It's a very comprehensive plan that we think will serve the city and our downtown quite well in the coming years."

The plan goes to the Pleasanton Downtown Association for review Thursday and then to the city's Housing Commission and the Parks and Recreation Commission for consideration Sept. 20. The Planning Commission has scheduled a public hearing on the plan for 7 p.m. Sept. 26 in the public school district board room, 4665 Bernal Ave. The City Council is expected to consider the plan once all commissions have reviewed it and final changes are made. The plan could become law by January.

Downtown Pleasanton covers 60 city blocks and 308 acres of land. Although most consider downtown to be Main Street and adjoining side streets, the downtown district actually includes much more: Pleasanton Avenue and the Alameda County Fairgrounds to the west, the Arroyo del Valle and the Union Pacific Railroad line to the north, a generally-straight line projection of Second and Third streets to the east and Bernal Avenue to the south.

"Its key distinguishing characteristics are its historic quality and small-town scale," explained Iserson. "Turn-of-the-Century (19th to 20th) to 1950s single family homes and commercial buildings dominate the landscape and create a sense of history and community that is treasured by the citizens of Pleasanton and visitors alike." In fact, a recent city survey showed that 77 percent of residents drive downtown once a week or more.

Downtown Pleasanton is also considered to be the heart of the city due to its central location and attraction as a place for shopping and dining, although it is not a major revenue generator. From Fiscal 1991 through Fiscal 1999, the annual sales tax revenues varied from 2.2 percent to 2.9 percent of citywide revenues, with downtown's fiscal contribution increasing to 3.5 percent last year. According to a survey, Pleasanton residents spend 6 percent of their retail dollars in the downtown.

Even so, downtown is considered the civic core and "heart" of Pleasanton. It is the primary gathering spot for the community and a major draw for visitors, for everything from Farmers Market on Saturdays to soccer parades, regional band reviews and Hot Rod Heaven, an event that, alone, drew 40,000 to Main Street last month. In fact, a recent city survey showed that 77 percent of residents drive downtown once a week or more.

According to the Downtown Specific Plan report, the rich character of downtown Pleasanton stems from its abundance of historic buildings that have been constructed over the last 150 years. The architectural styles, small-town scale of buildings and tree-lined streets all combine to create a setting unique to Pleasanton.

Unlike many other communities in the Bay Area where old town areas have long since been replaced with newer and more intensive urban development, Pleasanton's downtown has remained substantially intact. This character is highly valued by the community and the specific plan is designed to preserve and enhance the downtown by focusing on six key areas.
Economic Vitality

Even with 484 businesses in the downtown district, total employment is only 2,250 - or about five per business. Average employment ranges from one to 291 for the city of Pleasanton, which has many of its municipal buildings in the downtown area.

Demand for downtown retail and office space has increased steadily since the completion of the 1993 Main Street reconstruction project. At the end of 2000, only 13,000 square feet - or 1.5 percent - of the downtown's 843,000 square feet of existing commercial and office space were vacant. Even with the current economic downturn, empty spaces quickly rent in the downtown area. Rents have also increased to $2.50-$3 per square foot, compared to $1.75 and $2 paid by long-standing retail tenants.

During the development of the new specific plan, concerns were raised about ground floor space being leased to professional offices. Craig Scharton, then executive director of the PDA, proposed requiring retail only on ground floor locations, but the Downtown Specific Plan Committee and the City Council in a special hearing declined to adopt that policy. Instead, the PDA "encourages" property owners to find retail tenants for those spaces, but has found that market incentives drive those decisions.
Traffic and Transportation

The streets in downtown Pleasanton were planned long before the automobile and consequently are not built to modern standards or needs. While annoying to local motorists and businesses at times, the narrow, often non-connecting streets curtail both speeding and cut-through traffic. Nevertheless, traffic has increased substantially on First Street in both morning and evening rush hours, and to some extent on Main Street. Bernal Avenue also carries traffic to and from the freeways.

To move this traffic more efficiently in the downtown area, the Specific Plan Committee has proposed extending Railroad Avenue to Ray Street, moving forward with the city's plan to extend Rose Avenue to Valley Avenue and to eliminate parking lot driveways onto Main Street where possible.

Jones & Stokes, an Oakland consulting firm hired by Pleasanton to conduct an Environmental Impact Report on the downtown plan, has also recommended revising lane configurations on First Street between Bernal and Ray Street. Under this plan, parking would be prohibited along the west side of First Street where the two parks and office buildings are located, with that lane converted into a southbound traffic lane. The two adjacent lanes would be dedicated to northbound traffic, with parking to continue to be allowed in front of homes on the east side of First.

"There are two arguments to this plan," Iserson said. One is that it would relieve traffic now affecting businesses both on First and even on Main. The second is that if we add another lane, it will simply invite even more traffic."

"The good news is that we don't have to do anything right now," he added. "We can wait to see what impact the completion of the interchange will have on cut-through traffic, and to work on encouraging the widening of Highway 84 over Pigeon Pass, which also might reduce cut-through traffic in Pleasanton."
Parking

Currently, there are 3,320 parking spaces in the commercial portion of downtown, although many motorists on a busy Friday night ask where they are. The Specific Plan Committee determined that off-street parking is not equitably located, with some business offering their own parking lots and warning customers of other restaurants or businesses to stay out. Domus, for example, recently painted its name on all spaces in the parking lot it owns on Main Street.

The new plan asks the city to create 400 new parking spaces downtown, consisting of both private and public parking. Parking in-lieu fees collected from businesses that have paid to provide public parking instead of having enough spaces of their own and public facility funds should be used to acquire land and existing private lots for more public parking, the plan recommends.

The specific plan also urges the city to acquire the Alameda County Transportation Corridor, once the route of the old Southern Pacific Railway through downtown. The county has reserved the land for possible light rail use in the future, but has allowed Pleasanton to pave part of the strip between First and Main streets for off-street parking - from Bernal north to Neal. The Specific Plan calls for the city to acquire the land from the county and add more off-street parking. It would also include a trail as part of the right of way.
Niles Canyon Railway

A group of historic railway enthusiasts - the Pacific Locomotive Association - operates the Niles Canyon Railway, which runs between Sunol and Niles. It has proposed extending its Saturday and Sunday services to Pleasanton's downtown, using the same transportation corridor right of way. Although voters endorsed the idea of a historic train in an advisory ballot several years ago, the plan has never caught on with city commissions and the Downtown Specific Plan Committee. The committee supports the Niles Canyon Railway coming into Pleasanton but wants the line stopped south of Bernal due to traffic, parking and safety concerns. The issue resulted in one of the heaviest-attended and most contentious of the committee town meetings last year at the senior center, with many in apartments on Case Avenue objecting to possible noise and odors from the diesel-powered trains.
Historic Preservation

The Downtown Specific Plan Committee's concern over historic preservation of aging downtown buildings has resulted in the creation of an Historic Preservation Committee of its own. This group is working to inventory buildings of historic significance to Pleasanton and to take the necessary measures to protect and preserve them.

Prominent Main Street sites identified by the downtown committee include the: ¥ Johnston Building at 465 Main St., constructed in 1896 using Romanesque-style architecture; ¥ Kolln Hardware at 600 Main St., built in 1890 and an example of Victorian Revival-style architecture; ¥ Pleasanton Arch, the sign that has been identified as the gateway to downtown since 1932 when it was constructed for $538 from funds donated by the Women's Improvement Club; ¥ Livermore-Amador Historical Museum at 603 Main St., originally constructed in 1915 as the Pleasanton Town Hall and designed in the Mediterranean style; and the ¥ Pleasanton Hotel at 855 Main St., first built in 1864 by town founder John Kottinger as the original Farmer's Hotel. It has twice been destroyed by fire and was most recently rebuilt in 1915 to appear as it did in 1898.
Land Use and Housing

In order to preserve the historic character of the downtown district but still allow for larger buildings and more upper floor housing, the Specific Plan Committee proposes that more three-story buildings be allowed on Main Street. Although subject to design guidelines, these buildings could rise to 40 feet at the peak of the roof line, minimizing their three-story appearance through the use of techniques such as dormer windows and stepped-back upper floors.

With a third-floor option, builders might be encouraged to provide housing units on the upper floors. Committee members felt those units would help meet increased demand for downtown housing and also provide more affordable housing convenient to downtown.

"We think this provision will help us bring more diversity to the downtown area," Iserson said. "We'd like to see more residential units downtown, and this would be a way to provide more of those."