Nearly all work on the East Pleasanton Specific Plan has been suspended at the direction of the Pleasanton City Council, whose members voted 3-1 to ask voters in November 2015 whether or not the city should proceed with the plan. A BIA|Bay Area representative and others urged the city to stick with its planning process and focus on finding solutions to the common challenges of schools, traffic and water. “A failure to plan is a plan to fail,” a Pleasanton resident told the elected board at the City Council meeting on May 19, 2015. But vocal anti-growth residents repeatedly cited the state’s persistent drought, among other issues, and they ultimately prevailed. The council directed staff to stop work on the EPSP environmental review pending the outcome of the ballot measure, although a citizen task force assigned to develop the plan will be permitted to make a final recommendation. The draft EPSP called for roughly 1,300 single-family houses — all multi-family units were taken off the table — along with commercial development on 1,100 mostly industrially zoned acres. Mayor Jerry Thorne and Councilmembers Karla Brown and Kathy Narum voted in favor of the motion, while Councilman Jerry Pentin voted no. (Pentin sought to tie resumption of the EPSP process to the end of the drought before ultimately placing the issue before city voters.) Councilman Arne Olson owns property near the plan area and was ineligible to vote.
Click here to view BIA|Bay Area’s letter to the Pleasanton City Council.
Click here to view the agenda and staff report.
