The City Council approved two controversial measures with unexpected ease Tuesday–one to determine the cost of ripping out the Vineyard Avenue roundabouts and the other to keep a right-of-way in place for extending Stoneridge Drive to Livermore if a future council decides to make that move.
More than 2,200 residents who drive on Vineyard Avenue were sent notices of the council meeting, but only Ruby Hill homeowner Dan Carl spoke at the meeting. Using a chart, he showed that 50 percent of the vehicle accidents on Vineyard between Ruby Hill and Montevino Drive occurred at one of the street’s two roundabouts. He called them “dangerous” and urged that they be removed.
But Councilman Matt Sullivan disagreed. He said the accidents were speed-related and had the motorists slowed down to the 10-15 mph speed recommended for rounding the circles, there would have been no accidents.
“I have driven that road many times and have no trouble navigating those circles,” Sullivan said. “My daughter who has a learner’s permit also has no problem.”
“We’re going to have people going 65 mph down that road,” he added. “If we have accidents then, it’s really going to be nasty. If we really are concerned about safety, then we should only remove those roundabouts if we put something else there to control traffic.”
Mayor Jennifer Hosterman agreed.
She reminded the council that the roundabouts were installed to provide smoother access to Neal Elementary School. Traffic engineers said at the time that they would allow school traffic to move into and out of the two Thiessen Street intersections without stopping, where a traffic light would lead to traffic backups during peak hours.
Neal School has not yet been built, and drivers have protested that the circles are not needed now, and may never be needed if Neal isn’t built.
“I’ve had a number of discussions with Dr. Casey (the Pleasanton school superintendent) and he assures me that Neal School will be built, it’s just a question of when,” Hosterman said.
In the end, Council members Jerry Thorne, Cindy McGovern and Steve Brozosky prevailed in a 3-2 vote to ask Public Works Director Rob Wilson to prepare construction plans. Wilson will then seek bids to take out the roundabouts and repair Old Vineyard Avenue temporarily as a detour while the two-to-three month roundabout project is underway.
The council will consider the issue again in May or June when the bids are submitted, showing how much the project will cost.
In other action, the council agreed unanimously to sign a “Memorandum of Understanding” with Alameda County to proceed with plans to buy and annex the 124-acre Staples Ranch site at the eastern edge of the city.
The move will allow Pleasanton to re-zone the land to provide a 36-acre auto mall, a 45-acre, 800-unit senior care facility, a 17-acre site for retail business and offices and another 17-acre site for use as a public park or sports fields.
The agreement also requires that the city keep a right-of-way for a four-land extension of Stoneridge Drive to El Charro Road and Livermore. Although all members of the council have said they plan to delete the proposed extension from the new General Plan that they are updating, the county agreement would keep the right-of-way in place in case a future council votes to restore the extension plan.
The auto mall will provide space for Hendrick Auto to build a larger sales and service facility near El Charro Road and I-580. The dealership, whose business provides an estimated $2 million in tax revenue to the city, told officials last year that it would have to find a business site outside of Pleasanton if the Staples Ranch auto mall could not be built.
