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The Pleasanton City Council is set Tuesday to debate approving the final draft of the Citywide Strategic Plan — a five-year planning framework that will look to replace the city’s longstanding, two-year process for identifying and prioritizing public projects, programs and policy initiatives.
Last November, the council authorized City Manager Gerry Beaudin and staff to develop the new five-year plan, which has since been dubbed “ONE Pleasanton,” in order to replace old biennial council work plan — a system that residents have been used to for nearly 20 years under the prior city manager.
Since then, staff have been working on gathering input from the council, city committees and the public in order to develop the plan. Staff presented a draft to the council at an Aug. 24 workshop, which helped staff finalize the plan that will be presented to the council on Tuesday.
Apart from gathering internal input from the city, staff also facilitated multiple focus groups, pop-up events and other community input events. Results from a recent community survey were also used in the development of the new strategic plan.
“Key priorities from the community engagement and community survey include housing and housing affordability, infrastructure, specifically water supply and quality, and public safety,” according to the staff report. “Other themes include communication, parks and public facilities, arts and culture, economic development, collaboration with non-profit organizations, diversity and inclusion, transportation, planning and sustainability.”
Staff also hosted two bilingual focus groups — one in Spanish and one in Mandarin — in order to gather more diverse community member engagement to “ensure that the strategic plan reflects the needs and priorities of Pleasanton today.”
“The goals and strategies in the plan represent the priorities of Pleasanton’s City Council, community and staff for the period from 2023 to 2028,” according to Tuesday’s staff report.
If the council approves the plan on Tuesday, staff will begin work on developing an implementation plan for the new five-year plan in order to “tie the goals and strategies in the plan to actionable projects and resources.”
“The outcome of this process will be a policy document that defines the city’s vision, mission and values and identifies citywide goals, strategies and implementation actions over the next five years,” according to the staff report. “The Implementation Action Plan will identify individual projects and initiatives with a proposed timeline for delivery that considers budget and other resources.”
The City Council meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Tuesday (Oct. 3). The full agenda can be accessed here.
In other business
* The council will be weighing on a few different conceptual improvement plans for Lions Wayside and Delucchi parks in downtown.
Back in February of this year, the council voted 4-1 to halt the Lions Wayside and Delucchi Park Master Plan update process.
Some of the original redesign proposals, which would have cost the city roughly $14 million, included relocating the Kottinger Creek further east, relocating the Chan Henderson Bicentennial Bandstand to be on the west side of the creek and reorienting the bandstand to face toward a large open space on the downtown side of Lions Wayside.
But after a decade of design work, evaluations and discussions, several council members on Feb. 7 thought the complete redesign was too costly — even though staff had said they didn’t have the actual cost estimates — and that the designs were ultimately unnecessary.
Now, staff are back with several recommendations from the Parks and Recreation Commission for a cheaper conceptual design plan that would utilize $1.9 million from the Lions Wayside and Delucchi Parks Capital Improvement Project budget.
The commission’s proposed recommendations to the council include moving the Lions Wayside bandstand to either the north side of the park to “create a stronger connection to the Firehouse Arts Center and a larger lawn area” or 10 feet further east from where it is currently located.
Other improvements that the council will discuss include constructing a playground, restroom or a lawn with seating to provide more concert viewing areas.
Construction for whatever plan the council decides to go with will be tentatively scheduled to start next summer with a projected completion date before the 2025 summer concert series.
* The Pleasanton Police Department will be presenting its biannual update on recent crime trends, police stop data, the community advisory board and police staffing to the council.
According to the staff report, the presentation will be a programmatic review of the PPD’s operations with additional information on current crime trends as “crime and public safety are key concerns identified in the citywide community survey.”
* As part of its consent calendar, which are items routinely passed with one single vote, the council will be set to approve the city’s new labor contract with the Pleasanton Police Officers Association, marking the end of a long summer of back and forth negotiations between both parties.
* The council will be voting to hold the rest of this year’s council meetings in the Remillard Conference Room at the city’s Operations Services Center at 3333 Busch Road in Pleasanton as part of its consent calendar. This would allow the city to finish renovating the regular city hall meeting room by the end of the year.
* The council will be set to mark the completion of the Pleasanton Public Library roof replacement project, after several months of work was done to the roof in order to address leaks.
