The City Council has moved the Johnson Drive Economic Development Zone (JDEDZ) proposal toward completion, putting Pleasanton that much closer to seeing a Costco, two hotels and other new commercial operations on their way to town near the I-580/I-680 interchange.

With their 4-0 vote Tuesday night, council members approved the final environmental impact report, a General Plan amendment to allow new commercial uses at the 40-acre site and a resolution declaring their intent to adopt a JDEDZ transportation fee down the line.

All that remains is the second reading of a new ordinance to approve a planned unit development rezoning of the site, a plan that includes strict design guidelines that could help expedite city review of future projects in the area city leaders hope will become Pleasanton's newest commercial center.

That final ordinance adoption, expected to take place next month, would mark the end of the city's years-long JDEDZ consideration process that included the debate being taken to voters one year ago.

“It’s time to be moving this forward,” Councilwoman Kathy Narum said toward the end of the 1-1/2-hour discussion Tuesday night at the Pleasanton Civic Center.

“I actually had a Livermore leader say to me, ‘Could you guys please open the Costco so our Costco isn’t so busy,'” Narum added with a chuckle.

The JDEDZ framework is expected to be finalized Dec. 5, when council members are set to formally adopt the rezoning ordinance — a required two-step process — and give final approval to a roadwork financing agreement with Costco that they endorsed in concept in September.

The city could begin accepting applications from JDEDZ developers one month after ordinance adoption, according to community development director Gerry Beaudin.

The council chamber, which was standing-room-only for business anniversary recognitions earlier in the meeting, was down to about two-dozen audience members by the time the JDEDZ discussion began Tuesday night.

Council members heard from only one resident speaker during public comment.

Christina Nystrom Mantha, who also sits on the city’s Economic Vitality Committee, which endorsed the JDEDZ last month, urged the council to adopt the proposal and bring the long community debate to a close.

“Personally, as a Pleasanton resident, I would love to see Costco come to Pleasanton. I shop at Costco and would love for the tax dollars stay in our city,” she said. “The overwhelming response that I get when I talk to other residents about this is: ‘The election was a year ago. We’ve been talking about this long enough. It’s time to take action.’”

Two Costco representatives also addressed the council Tuesday night, reiterating their commitment to bringing their third warehouse store to the Tri-Valley, on a parcel along Johnson Drive.

Mayor Jerry Thorne did not take part in the discussion, continuing to recuse himself after previously owning Costco stock in a retirement managed portfolio earlier in the JDEDZ consideration process.

The JDEDZ seeks to breathe new life into largely underutilized property southeast of the freeway interchange that includes a nearly 20-acre chunk left vacant since 2013 -- except for leftover building rubble -- after Clorox closed its research center there.

The proposal details rules for how redevelopment could occur in the 40-acre area, consisting of 12 parcels at 7106 to 7315 Johnson Drive and 7035 and 7080 Commerce Circle currently with a mix of land-uses. Some of the land is vacant while other areas are in use now.

Through the JDEDZ framework, Pleasanton planners look to spur a thriving retail and commercial hub that capitalizes on the near-freeway location, creates opportunities for new businesses to broaden Pleasanton's economic base and tax revenue, and streamlines the development review process in that area, according to Beaudin.

An economic development zone has been on city leaders' radar since Clorox vacated its Johnson Drive site for another property in Pleasanton.

The council endorsed the broad concept and initiated analysis of JDEDZ specifics in 2014, but efforts slowed last year after a citizens group successfully put an initiative measure on the ballot seeking to prohibit retail uses of 50,000 square feet or more from operating in the zone.

Measure MM, which came about soon after Costco became linked to the Johnson Drive site, failed at the polls last November with about 63% of Pleasanton voters opposing it -- clearing the way for JDEDZ consideration to proceed.

City leaders and many residents point to the strong defeat of Measure MM as a sign the Pleasanton community at large supports bringing Costco to town and the JDEDZ concept overall.

The JDEDZ project cleared a key hurdle last month when the council signed off on a financing agreement with Costco to pay for road improvements needed to accommodate new development in the area, a deal that includes a 60-40 sales tax sharing agreement with Costco to cover a portion of the costs.

City officials hope the JDEDZ would spark new retail or broader commercial interest in not only the acreage currently vacant, but ultimately all parcels in the area.

Safeguards are included for those operating in the JDEDZ area now, such as FedEx, AT&T, Black Tie Transportation and Valley Bible Church. Existing land-uses would be permitted to continue as is, protected by grandfathering provisions.

But for the vacant land, as well as redevelopment of occupied parcels, city officials propose changing the General Plan designations and zoning districts to allow for a wider range of new commercial uses in the JDEDZ.

Costco and a hotel developer have already pledged their desire to come to Pleasanton in the JDEDZ, provided they come to terms to purchase property there from Nearon Enterprises, which owns 27 acres in the area, including the old Clorox site.

Administratively, the proposal from city staff calls for a General Plan amendment to change the land-use designations in the JDEDZ to retail-highway-service commercial and business and professional offices, as well as rezoning the properties to planned unit development (PUD) commercial.

With the PUD-commercial zoning would come specific rules developers must follow for site design, covering topics such as vehicular, pedestrian and bicycle circulation, landscaping, architectural standards, lighting, signage, parking, drainage, and outdoor equipment and storage.

It is because the JDEDZ package details those design guidelines upfront that city officials support allowing many retail operations, including a potential Costco, to need only staff-level permit approval, rather than consideration during a commission meeting.

Costco, under the "membership warehouse club" category, and hotels are among the businesses that would need approval from the city's zoning administrator with an application that adheres to all JDEDZ design guidelines -- unless a planning commissioner or council member calls for a public review of that approval.

The council members spent time going over the options one-by-one, making sure they all agreed on what made the list. Their adjustments included removing meeting halls, massage parlors, gun sales, and trade, music or other schools as potential uses at the JDEDZ.

Other possible uses in the "permitted," or staff-level approval, category include restaurant, food market, hardware store, garden center, car dealership, photo studio, and general retail without drive-thru.

Operations in the JDEDZ's "conditional," or commission-level, category include bar or brew pub, religious center, health club or gym, office building and general retail with drive-thru.

The JDEDZ package also includes certification of a final supplemental environmental impact report (EIR), which concludes the JDEDZ project can establish mitigation measures to reduce the project's impacts on a range of environmental conditions to a less-than-significant level.

But unlike most EIRs set for certification, this one concludes there would be significant and unavoidable impacts in two areas: transportation and air quality. Still, city staff thinks the EIR can be approved and JDEDZ advanced with a "statement of overriding considerations" for those two impacts.

In the case of transportation, the only reason it is left unmitigated is because the traffic improvements include work on the I-680 ramp at Stoneridge Drive, which requires Caltrans approval and therefore is technically outside of the city's control. Staff anticipates no problems obtaining clearance from Caltrans for the roadwork.

As for air quality, city staff contends the negative impacts are due primarily to the size of the project at 40 acres and the number of car trips expected to be generated,

The analysis found the negative pollutant impacts on the local level are less than significant, but at the regional level, on Bay Area air basin, the impacts are significant and unavoidable.

However city staff argues those levels would occur for any project of JDEDZ size anywhere in the Bay Area, and that is true too for almost all large, high-economic development projects in California, even those that give people the ability to work and shop closer to home.

The JDEDZ package also features a financing agreement with Costco to pay for road improvements needed to accommodate new development in the area, a deal that includes a 60-40 sales tax sharing agreement with Costco to cover a portion of the costs.

That part of the agreement sees Costco front the city $6,785,000 in cash for the infrastructure work -- just over a third of the overall design and construction pricetag -- and the city repaying the money with 40% of the sales tax revenue generated by the Costco until the debt is repaid, with the balance subject to 1.5% annual interest.

The other portions of the financing deal, to pay for roadwork design and construction, call for $6.4 million to be paid by city traffic impact fee reserves and $6,785,000 in a separate cash payment from Costco as part of its developer fee package.

Any other developer who builds on the JDEDZ in the future would need to pay their proportional share of the infrastructure costs back to the city, and city officials plan to use those funds to pay down their debt to Costco.

City officials are still working on the final methodology for the JDEDZ transportation fee, but they expect to bring forward a final fee proposal early next year.

In addition to the Stoneridge/I-680 ramp, other pending JDEDZ roadwork includes Johnson Drive widening, improvements at the Johnson-Stoneridge intersection, and new traffic signals at Johnson and Commerce Circle and Johnson and Owens Drive (north).

City officials say conservative estimates for the JDEDZ would see $1.4 million to $1.7 million in new annual General Fund tax revenue from the first phase, including Costco and the hotels, and at full build-out, $2.1 million to $2.3 million per year. That's on top of new property tax revenue that could be created for the Pleasanton Unified School District.