Three new reports just off the press and representing more than six years and thousands of hours planning the development of Pleasanton’s 318-acre Bernal public park are about to start a review process that could lead to a November ballot measure to seek voter approval.
The documents include an Environmental Impact Report–192 pages of analysis with separate attachments on land use issues and concerns for the property, which until this year has been farmland. A second, more reader-friendly document, is a draft Specific Plan for the property, and a third booklet is a Master Plan with maps, sketches and color photos of a 50-acre section in the eastern portion of the site that is planned to accommodate sports fields and related facilities within a forested framework of open space.
Basically, the EIR and Specific Plan follow suggested land uses already approved in preliminary public hearings.
The history
Work on planning uses for the Bernal property began when Greenbriar homes and its association paid the city of San Francisco $126 million to buy the acreage that San Francisco acquired in the 1930s for the water rights. That city retained ownership to those water rights in the sale, a complicated transaction that also gave Pleasanton the 318 contiguous acres free of charge for public uses on condition that developers could build 581 homes and apartments and a four-story, eight-building office complex. Greenbriar’s 100 apartment units and homes built on the main tract by KB Home have been completed and are occupied, while Greenbriar completes work on the final series of $1-million-plus homes on the westernmost section of the Bernal property west of I-680.
Planning work on developing Bernal began even before Greenbriar’s purchase when the Pleasanton City Council authorized a bond issue to buy part of the land directly from San Francisco. At the time, San Francisco had proposed a housing development and golf course for the site, which the council opposed. After the bond measure failed by a slim margin, Greenbriar and other developers stepped up to the plate with plans that the council supported, with San Francisco finally accepting the Greenbriar bid.
In December 2000, the Bernal Community Park Master Plan Task Force was appointed by the council to develop the 50-acre sports fields, which Greenbriar gave to the city first so that the proposed lighted fields could be built and in use before home construction started. That didn’t happen, and only now have planners and the council given final approval to build three lighted fields, with construction to start later this year.
The now-completed Master Plan for the sports fields and the Specific Plan for the rest of the acreage could allow more development to get under way as funds become available. Eventually that would include three lighted soccer fields and another lifted field for junior football and lacrosse. Also planned are picnic grounds, a 1,000-seat amphitheater, parking lots and public art.
The 50-acre site is bordered on the north by Bernal Avenue, on the south by the extension of Valley Avenue, now under construction, on the east by the proposed extension of Pleasanton Avenue that would link Bernal and Valley, and on the west by the rest of the undeveloped Bernal park acreage.
What now?
The draft Specific Plan, which has now been completed, provides planning direction for that undeveloped acreage. The site, which extends west of the sports park and wraps around homes and apartments, a new fire station and the Bernal Corners retail and gasoline station complex, is the city’s largest remaining vacant acreage. A task force that was appointed in 200 to consider this section of the Bernal property conducted numerous public hearings and heard from proponents of more than 40 uses, including a high school academy, ice hockey rink, a cemetery and a plan supported by County Supervisor Scott Haggerty to relocate the ACE train station off the Fairgrounds parking lot and onto Bernal. The final report omits those, but includes more open space that would link planted woodlands and meadows to restored and recreated lakes and ponds for, the report said, a “grand park-like character intended to create the dominant visual theme for designing future development.”
The Specific Plan lists 15 potential land uses for that setting, including a Child Care facility, cultural arts center, a 4-H demonstration farm and animal care facility, art-related classrooms and a Native American History Reflective Area. Trails, hiking paths and a youth and community center also are part of the long range plan.
The three draft documents will be reviewed first by the City Council and then sent to the Parks and Recreation Commission and Planning Commission for public hearings before being considered again by the council in late spring. If approved, voters could see a measure on the Nov. 7 ballot about the overall plan for building out Bernal.
