Pleasanton council to reconsider plan to build recycled water fill station in Parkside neighborhood

The Pleasanton City Council is set to revisit its participation in a regional agreement for a recycled water fill station at Parkside Drive at its upcoming meeting on Tuesday.

Council members will also review the Century House rebuild master plan that has specific site plans for the council to approve and a Stoneridge Mall redevelopment framework plan, which will help city staff obtain better directions for what the plan will be for the shopping center property.

In order to help residents with household irrigation, the cities of Pleasanton and Livermore, Dublin San Ramon Services District and Zone 7 Water Agency proposed to construct a recycled water fill station near the corner of Parkside Drive and Hopyard Road in Pleasanton where the former Zone 7 headquarters is located.

The 5997 Parkside Drive proposed location would utilize the city-owned parking lot to construct the station, which would have 17 proposed filling stalls. According to the staff report, if approved and constructed the fill station operational hours are proposed for Mondays through Fridays from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Council members unanimously approved to enter the agreement during its June 21 meeting, but after it sent out notice letters to the neighborhood, a growing number of Parkside residents said they are not happy with the proposed location.

Several of these residents spoke out against the proposed fill station during the council’s July 19 meeting, saying there was a lack of transparency with residents not knowing about the project and that it will congest their streets with unnecessary traffic.

Given neighborhood input based on noticing of the project, at its July 19 meeting the council requested reconsideration of the regional agreement for the fill station project.

“Following the Council’s action, city staff had been reviewing a Temporary Use Permit application for the Recycled Water Fill Station,” the staff report reads. “Noticing postcards were sent to neighbors within 1,000 feet, which is the city’s standard noticing radius for projects of this type. The notices elicited opposition from residents in the Parkside neighborhood.”

Now the council must once again decide during Tuesday’s meeting whether it should approve the multi-agency agreement to construct the fill station — the council has discussed this item four other times over the past couple months.

If the council decides to rescind from the agreement, the next question will be if the council wants to continue pursuing a new location or not.

Originally, the plan was to use a property owned by DSRSD in Dublin on Gleason Drive. It is a large parcel of undeveloped land near a recycled water pipeline, which is what feeds the pumps at a fill station — the reason the Parkside location was viable is because of the recycled water line across the street that supplies the Ken Mercer Sports Park.

Construction at the Gleason site was first projected to cost about $970,000, but ended up costing somewhere between $1.46 million and $1.74 million after the bidding process ended, causing Pleasanton to back out from the agreement, according to the city staff report.

The Tri-Valley agencies did consider other locations before choosing Parkside including the Livermore and DSRSD wastewater treatment plants and other city-owned properties.

These sites were not deemed viable based on a variety of factors, including the high cost of construction to install a fill station, according to the staff report.

The construction and operation cost this year for the fill station is about $481,500. Each participating agency would contribute one-third of the project costs, making Pleasanton’s initial funding $160,500.

If the council votes to terminate the agreement, the city would be responsible to pay for initial design costs that staff estimates to be $25,000.

The City Council meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Tuesday (Aug. 16). The full agenda can be accessed here.

In other business

* The council will be reviewing and possibly approving plans that will go toward developing a final master plan to rebuild and renovate the historic Century House.

Council members will discuss the selected site plan option and floor plan option, which was developed based on feedback from the joint City Council and Parks and Recreation Commission workshop in June 2021.

In 2014, the 150-year-old house on Santa Rita Road was closed to public use following an inspection, when it was determined there were numerous building and life safety code flaws.

The house was bought by the city in the 1970s and became a place for people to get married, hold birthday parties and attend classes onsite — until it was deemed unsafe.

Some of the topics that were discussed at previous meetings for the rebuild include the building assessment, facility usage and programming, site plan and parking options, and interior floor plan and renovation options.

In the revised midterm budget, the council allocated $4.8 million for the Century House master plan design and construction. Based on the council’s direction moving forward, city staff will seek a consultant for the master plan design and bring that contract forward to council with actual costs for consideration, according to the staff report.

The site plan option that the council will review will construct a pickup and dropoff area directly adjacent to Santa Rita Road and will allow for approximately 20 new parking spaces along the existing driveway.

According to the staff report, the plan will also: demolish the existing staff room; establish the bridal room on the first floor in the living room; reconstruct the restrooms to provide a minimum of one accessible and one non-accessible gender neutral restrooms; widen doorways or openings on the first floor to meet minimum accessibility requirements; reconstruct the exterior ramp to meet minimum accessibility requirements and replace damaged deck material and railings.

Total occupancy for the house would be limited to a maximum of 50 people because only two restrooms could be accommodated inside the house, however that number can be extended by bringing portable restrooms.

* City staff will be seeking input from the council on the proposed scope of work for the Stoneridge Shopping Center framework plan that is being developed to guide the redevelopment and development of the mall property.

The framework will outline the community’s expectations, allowed uses, and public amenities in conjunction with new development, according to the staff report.

The council will provide input on any key planning considerations or goals and will decide on allocating $176,400 to cover the costs of the related contracts for financial analysis, traffic and transportation analysis and urban design and planning costs.

“The purpose of the Stoneridge Mall Framework is to provide initial policy guidance and conceptual planning for the mall, focused on the “inner” mall area including the mall buildings and surrounding parking fields,” the staff report reads.

According to the staff report, various mall property owners have expressed interest in redeveloping existing vacant retail space in recent years, especially since Sears and Nordstrom left and other parcels like JCPenney have changed ownership.

The council had also included the mall in its 2023-31 Housing Element site list to serve as a location to develop between 900 and 1,440 high-density housing units that could be developed if rezoning as contemplated is approved.

“Given these various factors and the degree of owner interest in moving forward with specific development proposals in the near future, staff recommends that the framework process be initiated, with the goal of completing it prior to the adoption of the Housing Element,” the staff report reads. “Outcomes of the framework process can inform policies or programs to be adopted at the time of Housing Element adoption that may define next steps for more detailed planning that may be needed and inform consideration of future development proposals.”

The Housing Element is anticipated to be adopted by April or May 2023, providing approximately 6-8 months for staff to make progress with the framework. Staff will be working to create a more refined set of policies and a broader land use and circulation concept that will help to guide future housing development at Stoneridge Shopping Center.