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Summerhill Homes, a home builder and developer, has asked the Pleasanton Planning Commission for approval to tear down several one-story office building across from Hart Middle School on West Las Positas Boulevard in order to build a 177-unit apartment complex on the 5.9-acre site.
The site is one of nine that the City Council rezoned for high density, multifamily housing as part of its court-ordered settlement to provide more workforce housing.
The proposed development would use the two West Las Positas entrances already at the site which are serving the office buildings, The apartments structures would be two, three and four stories tall, built in U-shapes, with separate parking lots facing away from each other and recreational areas and open space for tenants in between both buildings.
Representatives of Summerhill’s Apartment Communities division said the buildings would have a Spanish-influenced architectural style, blending with similarly designed buildings in the area.
The apartment buildings would include one, two and three bedroom units, ranging in size from 718 to 1,298 square feet. Every upper floor apartment would have a deck with patios provided to ground floor units.
Associate Planner Jenny Soo said the Summerhill apartments would include 88 one-bedroom units, 72 with two bedrooms and 17 with three bedrooms A total of 301 parking spaces would be provided, more than enough to meet the city’s off-street parking requirements.
Opposition to the project, which was discussed at an informal meeting of the Planning Commission earlier this month, concerned traffic and the lack of elementary schools to serve the neighborhood.
The Planning Commission is expected to hold a public hearing on Summerhill plan in October.
I can’t wait to see the traffic on West Las Positas right before and tight after school at Hart. It’s an accident waiting to happen…how long before the large increase in traffic in this concentrated area leads to a child being run over on their way to school? Couldn’t they find another location for the new barrio?
Bad idea jeans folks. How this was approved by the planning commission as a school site is beyond me. In addition to dangerous traffic that would endanger Hart middle school students, Las Positas is the main arterial to get out – which means more congestion threatening students crossing Las Positas to going to and from Donlon. Plus we don’t have the school capacity.
Urban Habitat’s lawsuit against the city made the argument that there aren’t enough residences for the lower-wage workers in town. The reality is, these units will still be priced beyond those folks working in local restaurants and retail (except for the 15% low-income set-asides), so they will most likely be inhabited by folks who just want to get into the Pleasanton School District who will commute out of town.
If there’s one state politician in the area running for state office who isn’t financed by developers – can we have a state law that ties residential development to available school capacity and makes sure development fees and projected tax revenues can support school news BEFORE the new development gets built? And how about knocking off the nonsense of California state law that gives high-density developers a break on school impact/mitigation fees? If not, maybe we wait for overcrowded schools and then file a lawsuit against the state for violating Chapter 6 of the education code – making the argument that overcrowded schools and staggered lunch periods are “discrimination” and violates our childrens’ rights to a free public education as guaranteed by the California Constitution. My child is a Kindergartner with a class size of 30, whereas first graders enjoy a 25-1 ratio. That sounds like discrimination to me…
That’s what you get when you build a school in the middle of a not-so thriving business park.
So, cracker jacks, zoning low income housing in a business park is better? There’s land on the east side of town near the quarries and the transfer station….build the hovels there.
Right, I’m sure they will but first they need a school there.
This is interesting. Just heard that Mr Mayor is meeting with “concerned” neighbors Sunday afternoon at 4 pm at the proposed development site, 5850 W. Los Positas.
If interested in asking some questions about this site plan to attend.
From the back of the building he’ll get to see just how close these apartments will be to the people of Parkside
Fellow residents…with all this building planned in Pleasanton, please help push the elected officials ro increase the amount of Firefighters and Police Officers. If this goes unchecked we will see a rise in crime and the standards of our great town decline.