City Council faces full agenda tonight as current terms draw to close

It’s a full agenda for tonight’s meeting of the Pleasanton City Council where key housing, growth management and consideration of a public peace commission will go before the local lawmakers.

Not only are most of the measures before the council tonight timely, they are also being considered in one of the final meetings of the current council before a new one is elected Nov. 6 and takes over on Dec. 4.

Most important for a final vote will be a General Plan amendment to the city’s Housing Element, with provisions for adding ample acres zoned for high density housing to satisfy state and court-ordered requirements to provide more housing for low-to-moderate income families.

The measure also puts to bed a 1996 housing cap of 29,000 housing units that voters approved but an Alameda County Superior judge rules illegal. It also follows the council’s action to rezone nine sites throughout the city totaling approximately 75 acres for high density housing.

The measure failed to be approved Oct. 2 in a 2-2 vote with council members Cindy McGovern and Matt Sullivan opposed. With Mayor Jennifer Hosterman back tonight, who said she approved the General Plan amendment, the Housing Element changes are expected to pass.

Also on the agenda is a long-awaited plan to redevelop Pleasanton Gardens and Kottinger Place, two low-income senior facilities on Kottinger Drive near Pleasanton’s downtown. The proposed new one-two-and three-story buildings will nearly double the capacity of the two facilities to 189 tenants.

Redevelopment plans have been stalled for nearly two years as planners worked with neighbors and managers of the privately-owned Pleasanton Gardens to modify the impact on noise, traffic, congestions and tenant comfort in the new project. originally planned as a multi-story apartment building to replace the single-story homes now at Kottinger Place and possibly tear down the aging Pleasanton Gardens, the new agreement stays with the ground floor “cottage-like” structures with some two story and a few three-story units between Kottinger Drive and Vineyard Avenue.

The new plan also moves the main entrance to what is now Kottinger Place to face on Vineyard, where management offices, social service representatives and more activity space will be located. Although still referred to by their current names, both Pleasanton Gardens and Kottinger Place may have a new name as well as new management.

Also on tonight’s agenda is the introduction of an ordinance amending the city’s growth management program. Currently, and for years past, housing permits have been limited to 350 a year, although there has been much less demand for permits during the recent housing recession.

That same unit allocation would continue going forward but will be split among three categories: 200 units allowed for major projects, 50 units for affordable housing projects, and 100 units for first-come, first-served projects.

Although the 350-per-year in permit applications will continue, that number could fluctuate with numbers assessed to cities, including Pleasanton, by the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA), issued every seven years by the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) and state housing authorities.

Pleasanton has now met its allocation for the current RHA period with a new allocation yet to be decided for the next period that starts in 2014.

Among other issues before the council tonight is consideration of creating a public body for promoting peace-related programs. This follows a request by Fred Norman, a veteran who speaks at almost every council meeting in his effort to get the council to take a position on the country’s involvement in Afghanistan and, earlier, Iraq.

Tonight’s report lists five options the council could take: create a commission similar in standing with other city commissions; create an ad hoc committee; facilitate a community roundtable discussion on peace-related issues; facilitate the creation of a foundation with a peace-based focus, or include a discussion of these options as part of the City Council’s next priority-setting process.

Not listed as an option tonight, but also a possibility, would be a majority vote by the council to do nothing.

Tonight is the last regularly scheduled council meeting in October, although a special meeting may be called before month’s end. There is no meeting on Election Day, Nov. 6, usually a scheduled meeting for the City Council. The final meeting would come on Nov. 20, Thanksgiving Week.

The newly-elected council and mayor will take office on Tuesday, Dec. 4.