Local developers aren’t greedy grinches. They are respected community members, involved just as the rest of us are in community affairs. More involved, in many cases. They are our neighbors and have just as much interest in creating a thriving, desirable, and pleasant community as we already are. Without them, things like Harrison Street, with its 5-story, no-parking, squeezed-in development dreamed up by out-of-area firms whose only interest is how much money they can make, will continue to be a blight on our downtown landscape that we so dearly treasure.
Many of these local developers, some of whom probably built the home you live in, chose this place to live themselves because they recognized the quality and planning that has gone into making Pleasanton the pleasant place it is. They chose to rear their families here, send their kids to school here, operate their businesses here, and become a part of the community here. They don’t condone stack-and-pack, tear-out historic and replace with crammed-in kinds of housing any more than we do! If it weren’t for them, we wouldn’t have roofs over our own heads!
If we are to come out of the housing crisis vaguely resembling the city we all love, we need these local developers. We need them to use their expertise in construction details, things like ADA requirements, building codes, building materials, etc. to create space for residents to live comfortably, at the same time designing those spaces to work within the Climate Action Plan 2.0 goals in order to take our city into the future.
So if you’re a candidate, and you somehow believe refusing support from local developers is a vote-getter, I’m here to say not mine. I want city officials to work with these local developers. To talk with, listen to, and exchange ideas with them. To ensure that 30 or 50 years down the road, Pleasanton is still the highly desirable place to live, work and play that it is now. Not another Los Angles North.
Linda Kelly
Pleasanton Resident of 5+ decades
