When you receive your voter information pamphlet that was mailed out yesterday for the June 7 primary, take time to carefully read the arguments in favor and opposed to Measure K.
This is the referendum placed on the ballot by the City Council to determine if its approval of a 43-home project should go forward on what is commonly referred to as Lund Ranch II, a 195-acre site in southeast Pleasanton.
The rezoned property as proposed by the council in a 3-1 vote Jan. 5 would also include 174 acres of land dedicated to the public for open space and trails.
Of the two council members who did not vote in favor of the project, Jerry Pentin abstained because he lives close to the streets that would connect to the property, and Karla Brown is opposed to the part of the plan that would allow access to the development through Sycamore Heights off Sunol Boulevard.
If the informational ballot seems heavy, it is. Besides providing written arguments for and against Measure K, along with a full copy of Ordinance 2133 that sets conditions for the Lund Ranch approval, the document Pleasanton voters will receive also covers other contests on June 7.
The first day for early voting is May 9.
In the Alameda County District 4 Board of Supervisors race, incumbent Nate Miley, who represents Pleasanton, faces one challenger, Bryan Parker. Congressman Eric Swalwell, a Democrat, will be challenged by Republican Danny Turner for the 15th Congressional District seat.
State Senator Steve Glazer in District 7, which includes Pleasanton, is being challenged by fellow Democrat Guy Moore and Republican Joseph Rubay. In the 16th State Assembly District, incumbent Republican Catharine Baker and former Pleasanton City Councilwoman Cheryl Cook-Kallio, a Democrat, are the only candidates on the ballot.
The two top vote-getters in the state Senate and Assembly primary contest, regardless of political party association, will meet again as candidates in the Nov. 8 General Election.
Seven candidates are vying in the June 7 election for three open seats on the Zone 7 Water Agency Board of Directors, with only the top three to be elected. Candidates include incumbents Angela Holmes, Dick Quigley and Sandy Figuers. The challengers are Eric Thiel, biology teacher at Amador Valley High School; Jackie Williams-Courtright, owner of Alden Lane Nursery; Al Exner, a financial analyst; and Victor Karpenko, a mechanical engineer.
In their arguments in favor of Measure K on the June 7 ballot (the Lund Ranch II plan), five people are urging voters to vote "yes." They are Mayor Jerry Thorne, Councilwoman Kathy Narum, school board trustee Joan Laursen, Pleasanton Partnerships in Education (PPIE) Foundation founder Kelly French and city planning commissioner Herb Ritter.
They contend that Pleasanton's General Plan would allow up to 143 homes on the 195-acre site, but the council approved only 43 houses with 174 acres set aside permanently for public open space and that the development will provide more than $1.2 million for schools along with $500,000 for local and regional traffic improvements.
Signing arguments against Measure K are Brown, former City Councilwoman Cindy McGovern, former planning commissioner Anne Fox, Kellene Cousins and William Rasnick.
They argue that development on Lund Ranch II will violate the rules imposed by voter-approved Measure PP against new hillside housing; that it will put additional stress on water supplies, traffic and school capacity; and that it will ignore environmentally preferred plans by bulldozing hilly terrain and removing 645 truckloads of dirt to build roads on slopes over 25%.