Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to the December 10th, 2025 Pleasanton Planning Commission meeting. This is our last scheduled meeting of the year and with that I'll call the meeting to order and I'll go ahead and lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance today.

All right, could we please have roll call?

Commissioners Jago? Present. Jane? Present. Mohan is absent and Pace is absent. Wedge? Present. And Chair Morgan? Present. Okay. We have a quorum.

All right. Well, thank you. Staff, do we have any amendments tonight?

No amendments to the agenda.

All right. And fellow planning commissioners, any proposed amendments?

None for me.

None?

Okay, very good. Welcome to the general public too. Glad you all came to help us understand what residents, what is important to residents here tonight. And for members of the public, if you would like to speak on any topic tonight, please submit a yellow speaker card to the recording secretary. And the speaker cards can be found just outside of the council chambers here. WITH THAT, LET'S GO AHEAD AND MOVE TO THE CONSENT CALENDAR. CONSENT CALENDAR ITEMS ARE CONSIDERED ROUTINE AND WILL BE ENACTED BY ONE MOTION UNLESS A REQUEST FOR REMOVAL FOR DISCUSSION OR EXPLANATION IS RECEIVED FROM THE PLANNING COMMISSION OR A MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC BY SUBMITTING A SPEAKER CARD FOR THAT ITEM. WE HAVE THREE ITEMS ON THE CONSENT CALENDAR TONIGHT. THE ZONING ADMINISTRATOR ACTIONS, ACTIONS OF CITY COUNCIL AND APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM OUR LAST THE LAST MEETING THAT WE HAD WHICH WAS IN NOVEMBER. DO WE HAVE ANY SPEAKER CARDS FOR CONSENT ITEMS?

THOSE SPEAKER CARDS WERE RECEIVED FOR THE CONSENT CALENDAR.

ALL RIGHT. IF ANYONE ELSE WOULD LIKE TO SPEAK ON THE CONSENT CALENDAR, PLEASE GO AHEAD AND APPROACH THE PODIUM. SEEING NO ONE THERE. ANY COMMENTS FROM FELLOW PLANNING COMMISSIONERS FOR THE CONSENT CALENDAR? ALL RIGHT. WITH THAT, I'LL INVITE A MOTION FOR APPROVAL OF THE CONSENT CALENDAR.

I'LL MAKE A MOTION TO PASS THE CONSENT CALENDAR.

DO WE HAVE A SECOND? I SECOND. COULD WE PLEASE HAVE A ROLL CALL?

COMMISSIONER JACOB?

AYE.

JANE?

AYE.

WEDGE? AYE. CHAIR MORGAN? AYE. MOTION PASSES UNANIMOUSLY.

ALL RIGHT. MOVING TO MEETING OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. PUBLIC COMMENT IS FOR ITEMS THAT ARE NOT ON THE AGENDA. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SPEAK FOR AN ITEM THAT IS ON THE AGENDA, PLEASE HOLD YOUR COMMENTS UNTIL WE GET TO THAT ITEM. DO WE HAVE ANY SPEAKER CARDS FOR ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA?

SORRY, NO SPEAKER CARDS ARE RECEIVED FOR ITEMS NOT LISTED ON THE AGENDA.

all right and if anyone else would like to speak for items not on the agenda please approach the podium seeing no one we'll close public comment for items that are not on the agenda And then moving to public hearings and other matters, we have one item on the calendar tonight, and that is for the Planning Commission and the general public to review the draft environmental impact report for a development on the west side of town. And we're ready for, I guess, the staff presentation, if you are.

Thank you. Good evening Chairperson Morgan, members of the Commission, members of the public. This is the Hidden Canyon Residences and Preserve Project study session to receive and submit public comment on the draft environmental impact report for the Hidden Canyon Residences and Reserve Project. This project has a number of entitlements. I'll just list them. They're not under consideration tonight, but I'll just list what they are. This includes annexation, general plan amendments, rezoning for most of the site. I'll get to that a little bit later. A development plan for a plan new development and a tentative track map. The applicant is Ponderosa Homes 3 Incorporated. The project component, sort of a high-level overview, includes the construction of 28 new single-family residences on 23.89 acres of a 130.98 acre site, consistent with measures PP and QQ. It includes demolition and reconstruction of two existing single-family residences, and it includes dedication of 104.6 acres of open space to various entities. It includes numerous park improvements including a new public trail ad dedicated to the East Bay Regional Park District, a new trail connecting to the Pleasanton Ridge East Bay Regional Park District trail system, a new restaurant and parking area, and an equestrian staging area. Additional components include numerous roadway improvements, including a new traffic signal at Canyon Meadows Drive and the widening and improvements to Dublin Canyon Road, increasing safety and visibility for vehicles, vehicles, excuse me, bicyclists and pedestrians. Project also includes annexation of 72.6 acres of the project site into the city of Pleasanton. This includes the developed area of the project site as well as the Oak Hills Congregational Church site. And for reference, a detailed project description including a lot of exhibits and details about the various improvements and components is included in Chapter 2 of the draft EIR. This is an overview of the project site. As seen high up, you can see the outline of the overall project site, the location of the East Bay Regional Park District lands in green. And if you could see a little red line down the middle, that is the urban growth boundary. This is a project overview including the location of the improvements. You can see the location of the proposed 28 new single-family residences as well as some of the dedication areas in various shades of green for open space. The green area is the area to be dedicated to public open space. the area in lavender or purple would be privately maintained open space and the area in red would be open state dedication with the lester family trust This is an important slide because this is also in the environmental review portion of the draft EIR. These are some of the major biological resource features of the site. As you can see, that includes in darker green, the mixed riparian woodland areas, in lighter green, the oak woodlands, and areas in yellow, the chaparral areas, and this is sort of superimposed on the overall project site with the area for the proposed development of the 28 single-family residences. And again, if you go into Chapter 3 of the EIR, there's a complete review of the project's impacts on biological resources and mitigation measures. Now, project has subject to an EIR and that is because the project is defined as a project under the California Environmental Quality Act. And for this level of project, an EIR is the correct environmental review document. The purpose of the EIR is to inform decision makers and the public of the potential environmental effects that may result from implementation of the project. It includes and identifies mitigation measures that can avoid or reduce potential impacts. It also identifies reasonable alternatives to a project that achieve at least some of the project objectives. The contents of a DEIR or draft DEIR, number one the introduction just explaining what's going to be in the EIR and all the various agencies and requirements under the California Environmental Quality Act that the EIR addresses. It includes a detailed project description which I've mentioned is in Chapter 2. IT INCLUDES AN ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ANALYSIS OF THE 16 ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES AREAS THAT ARE SUBJECT TO REVIEW FROM THE INITIAL CITY CHECKLIST CENTER THAT ARE POTENTIALLY IMPACTED BY THIS PROJECT. THE ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS identifies an impact analysis ranging from no impact or less than significant impact to significant and unavoidable impacts. So there's a pretty broad range of that and I'll get into that a little bit more shortly in terms of which impacts fall under which category. The EIR also discusses the draft mitigation measures as applicable for each resource area to reduce the level of impact to a level of less than significant. And the EIR also includes, and this is in chapter six, the project alternatives. And again, I'll get into that a little bit more in detail in a minute. The first part of the public review of a draft EIR is the notice of preparation. The notice of preparation details the project description. It also details the areas that are identified early on as potentially impacted by the proposed project. It also allows for the public and affected agencies to comment on what they want to see analyzed in the EIR to address their concerns. The NOP, as it's called, was released on August 22, 2019 for a 30-day review and comment period. The Planning Commission held a public scoping meeting during this period on September 11, 2019. Ten comments were received from agencies and the public, and the City considered these comments during preparation of the draft EIR. And for reference, the notice of preparation, the comments received, and the minutes of the meeting are included in Appendix A of the EIR. So you can view those online, or I have hard copies if you'd like to look at those as well, but that's all contained in there. So getting into a little bit more detail about the impact levels. So again, 16 resource areas that are potentially affected by the project. And based on the analysis that was done in the draft EIR, the EIR found that the project would have either no impact or less than significant impacts to air quality, energy, greenhouse gas emissions, hydrology and water quality, land use and planning, noise, public services, recreation, and utilities and service systems. The EIR also discovered that there are several resources areas that were potentially significant in terms of the impact levels, but that they could be reduced to a level of less significant with mitigation measures. and those included aesthetics, light and glare, biological resources, cultural resources and tribal cultural resources, geology, soils and seismicity, hazards and hazardous materials and wildlife. Wildfire, thank you for that. And the mitigation measures, that's a big one. The mitigation measures, they're also described in chapter three of the EIR. And again, the mitigation measures are in draft form right now. They're included in the EIR for analysis and for public disclosure purposes. And the purpose of those is, again, to reduce the impact to a level of less than significant. And again, they're discussed in each applicable resource chapter in Chapter 3 of the draft EIR. They're also included in Table ES-1, the Executive Summary Matrix. And in the final EIR, which I'll discuss in a little bit more detail, that will include the Mitigation, Monitoring, and Reporting Program. And what that does, it identifies each mitigation measure. It identifies the responsible entity or agency for monitoring. It identifies the timing and completion for monitoring and whether or not it applies to either construction or operation of the project. The EIR did discover one significant and unavoidable impact, and that is in the area of transportation. And the reason for that finding conclusion is that the project would be inconsistent with CEQA guidelines section 15064-3B, and that requires analysis per VMT thresholds. The city has not adopted VMT thresholds and the impact level is the same in terms of the finding of significant and unavoidable as was found in the housing element EIR. And so basically it's consistent with that prior finding that was in the housing element EIR. Same reason, same discussion. Now, when an EIR discovers or determines and concludes that an impact is going to have a significant unavoidable impact, and really there are no mitigation measures that would reduce that to a level of less than significant impact, then the city requires or CEQA requires that what's called a statement of overriding consideration be adopted. And in that case, the city must consider the significant and avoidable impact against the benefits of the project. And then the city must adopt a statement of overriding consideration based on findings of fact that support that conclusion to allow the adoption of the statement of overriding considerations. Chapter six of the draft EIR includes the project alternatives analysis. And so the EIR examined reasonable alternatives that meet at least some of the project objectives. Three were analyzed. Alternative one was the no-build alternative, which is what happens when the project is not constructed at all. ALTERNATIVE NUMBER TWO WAS AN ANALYSIS UNDER EXISTING ZONING AND ALTERNATIVE THREE WAS AN ALTERNATIVE SITE ANALYSIS AND AGAIN THE THE BREAKDOWN IS IN AND THE DISCUSSION IS IN CHAPTER SIX OF THE DRAFT EIR NEXT STEPS THIS HEARING TONIGHT IS AGAIN IT'S A STUDY SESSION AND IT'S A PUBLIC HEARING TO RECEIVE COMMENTS AND PROVIDE COMMENTS ON THE DRAFT EIR it is not the end and i want to make sure everybody you know in the public hears this too we're sort of in the middle of the comment period so in no ways is tonight's hearing the end all for providing comments on the draft eir it's in fact the hearing we're doing is not required by seek where we're doing it as a measure in a way consistent with city policy and making sure that we're allowing the public an opportunity to come to a public forum and provide those comments But the public comment period ends on January 5th, 2026, a little less than a month from now. So both the commissioners and the public have an ample opportunity to continue to review the document and provide comments back on the draft EIR. When that happens and when that's finished, the city, working with its CEQA consultant, will prepare the final EIR. And so the final EIR will include what's called a response to comments document. So all the comments received on the draft EIR, including all written comments as well as oral comments received this evening, will be responded to by the consultant team working with the city in the final EIR. This document will also include, we talked about this a little bit earlier, the mitigation monitoring and reporting program, which highlights all the mitigation measures, who does them, when they're done, and what monitoring period applies, either through construction and or operation of the project. The final EIR also includes any changes to the draft EIR. Usually it's called like an errata document. If there's any text changes or corrections that need to be made, those are made and those are included as part of the final EIR, as well as the draft EIR as well, the document that you have before us. And then after that, we will take those comments in and prepare the final EIR with the consultant. And then we will go ahead and prepare the documents, the plans, the conditions of approval, resolutions, everything related to the project entitlements. And then the plan right now is to bring those entitlements along with the final EIR to the Planning Commission and the City Council in the first quarter of 2026.

Thank you.

And therefore, tonight's recommendation is, again, we're not taking action on the project. We're not taking action on any aspect of the EIR. What we're doing is providing comments and receiving comments on the draft environmental impact report, again, for the Hidden Canyon Residences and Preserve project. And that concludes the presentation. I'm joined by Ellen to answer any questions on the project. And as well, I'd like to introduce Pratna. Maharaj and Mary Bean from First Carbon Solutions. They are the authors of the draft EIR, present them both, and then they will be here to answer any, maybe not answer, but at least to listen to any technical questions on the draft EIR. If they can answer, they will, but a lot of this is listening. A lot of this is receiving comments, and then they'll be taking notes and recording all these comments to respond to them in the final EIR. Thank you.

Thank you. Let's start with Commission technical or clarifying questions of staff. Commissioner Jaco.

I don't have any clarifying questions at this time. Mr. Jain.

Just to be on the record, this study is conducted by the city, like on behalf of the city, by the consultants hired by the city, and was not influenced by the applicant.

Correct. Yeah, the city is the lead agency under the California Environmental Quality Act, and the consultant team is the city's consultant on the project.

. Awesome. And we don't see these quite often. So this is a unique project, right? Like when was the last time we saw something like this in the city?

Well, we brought you the housing element EIR a couple of years ago, but before that the last project specific EIR was the Spatorno Ranch project which was in 2017. So it's been a minute, yeah.

Thank you. That's all. Okay.

Mr. All right. Well, I have some questions. I guess I'm the only one with questions for now. One of mine is how much notification has been provided to residents and have there been any public hearings to date? And then how much more notifications and public hearings will you be doing before this comes to the Planning Commission again?

I'll start maybe with a little bit of the background, and then Derek can speak a bit more to the noticing that was done. So with respect to the projects in general, this one has been on the books for a number of years. And so Mr. Schrader will probably recall the initial application, but it was It's been in process for at least five to seven years with the city. So there was a planning commission study session early on and some refinements made to the project. So it's had quite a lengthy timeline for review with the city of Pleasanton. As you can see, it's not a large number of units, but it's a complicated site with grading and access that needed to be really worked through and refined as well as utility items. There's been a lot of progressive review, and that has included at least one community outreach meeting, if not more, to get early and put on the project itself, as well as the NOP and scoping meeting that Mr. Farmer just mentioned.

And that was roughly when, within the last few months or within the last long, long time ago?

It was quite a while ago that we brought it back to the... 2019. Okay.

And then second part is the noticing that went out for the EIR. That was sent out a few weeks ago, I believe November 21st was the beginning of the 45-day review period. We did a blast, you know, like a noticing blast to... Property owners, we sent it about 450 to property owners, I believe within a thousand feet of the project site. We had a legal notice in the local paper. We had a webpage, which is active, created for the project that has the EIR on there, as well as all the appendices. We notified the Planning Commission. We notified the council, actually. So the council's aware that this document is on the city's website. And through what's called the statement of completion process, we notified the state clearinghouse that the draft EIR had been completed and was ready for public review. And then the state clearinghouse sends the EIR out to all state agencies that have expressed an interest through the notice of preparation process. Any responsible and or trustee agencies on the project as well. And then we also noticed through the county clerk. So there is a county clerk notice that was done on like four o'clock in the afternoon that afternoon, I was the one who went down there and got that in to make sure the county clerk had a recording of the notice of completion, and also was called the notice of availability. And so the notice of availability is the official document for the public, which starts the 45 day review and comment period.

Will there be any public hearings before it comes back to the Planning Commission again?

We're not anticipating holding other study sessions, so the next opportunity, at least as currently planned, would be a public hearing for consideration of the applications. If it would be beneficial to the Planning Commission, I'm sure we can do that, or assume it would happen in a couple of steps. We understand it's a complicated project. I was just refreshing my memory as Derek was talking. So this application was submitted in 2017, and it took about almost two years to get the project to a place where the project description, I'll say was stable, that there had been some initial input enough to sort of refine the project in order to prepare the EIR. And that's one of the challenges when you have an environmental document, you sort of want to keep the project that's being analyzed relatively stable. So you're not introducing a lot of changes, sort of throughout the review process. And so we did go fairly quiet on the public review front for that reason.

Okay. Is the intent that this project would fully comply with measure PP or any waivers or exceptions are there as far as I know?

Yeah, absolutely. The project has to comply with measure PP and QQ. That will be one of the key findings that the Planning Commission and Council will need to make in order to approve the project. So one of the things that took a long time in our review was to do that due diligence to make sure that the grading and all the aspects of the project really met the letter and the intent of measure PP and QQ.

Okay. i should probably know this but i don't you know we've looked we've seen a handful of projects that have come to us over the last couple years and as you said the last one that had a full year i think was this paternal project and then some of the ones that we've seen this year that are also part of the housing element They did not. Can you help me understand why this one has a full-fledged EIR but the other ones we've seen earlier this year for the other projects in the housing element didn't have that? Because I originally thought that the EIR for the housing element was comprehensive enough that it might mean that we might not have to study traffic again because we'd already considered it for all of the projects in the housing element.

Yeah, I mean, that's a really good question. So a number of the projects in the housing element were infill sites, so relatively small existing developed properties that really didn't have a lot of, you know, kind of extraordinary or complex environmental issues. And so that simplified their review. We were able to tear very easily off of the housing element EIR. This project was a little bit unique, I think, because we had already begun and made a lot of progress on the environmental impact report even prior to the housing element and housing element CEQA being completed. And so given the, you know, the fact that it's a greenfield site, that it has had more resources on it than some of the other locations, we decided to stay the course and continue to process this within the IR, which is the most robust analysis in terms of disclosing those impacts. I mean, the city conceivably could have gone the direction of doing a tiered analysis, but given how far along we were with the EIR and the interest in understanding that we were really looking at all the environmental impacts, we continued on with the EIR process for this one.

Okay. Has the East Bay Parks been involved in this project, and have you had communications with them, too, regarding this project?

Yeah, so East Bay Parks is definitely, I think, what we call a responsible agency here, so because there's a facility that's being designed for their benefit, both the applicant and city staff have had a lot of communication with East Bay Parks to make sure that the facility meets their needs and obviously East Bay Parks is equally concerned about the sequel impacts and so they're another agency will have the opportunity to to comment on this and they were flagging potential issues for us as we went through the design really to avoid as Derek showed you there was a lot of riparian constraints down in that corridor where that staging area is going to be and so staying out of those areas was really important to both the city and to East Bay Park so long story short yes we've been had a lot of coordination with these big parks they're satisfied with the design that we have and will be will also have the opportunity to review and comment on the environmental

Okay. And last question I have, which is a very small one. I'm interested to know how many heritage trees might be removed or total trees, if you happen to know that.

We can probably get back to you. It is, well, it's a mixed bag. It's actually fewer trees than you might think out there because it's just generally kind of grassland. I'm sure we have that data in the report. Derek maybe can look it up while we're accepting public comment and get back to you with that number specifically.

Yeah, if not, we can catch it in the next round when we meet again. Well, that's all the questions I had. Anybody think of any other ones? Are we all set for now? Looks like we're all set. So with that, I'd like to invite the applicant presentation if we have one tonight. I don't know if we have one.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the Pleasanton Planning Commission, city staff, and members of the public. My name is Jeff Schrader. I represent Ponderosa Homes, and I'm really excited to be here at this point. It's been a long road, as Ellen says. There's a lot of reasons for that. One of the most interesting things about the project, it's been in the general plan for 40 years or more. The property is in the county. It's in the city's sphere of influence, and it's the city's general plan, but it has to be annexed. So that kind of complicates a lot. And then also, too, the analysis that had to go into PPQQ, we had to wait for that implementation language to be performed by the Greenbrier project in the South Valley. name of the project, but we had to wait for that language to be developed before we could go through the PPQ analysis on this project. And then as we got to 2019 and we had a scoping meeting, along came COVID. And that pretty much shut a lot of things down. We couldn't have public hearings. And it was even difficult to meet with staff just to get things done and analyzed. And so we came out of COVID, and then we hit the housing element. And so we had to wait for the housing element process to get done. But all that time, we were working on details of the project. AND WE'RE REALLY EXCITED ABOUT THE OPPORTUNITY TO BRING THIS TYPE OF COMMUNITY TO PLEASANTON. THERE AREN'T MANY OPPORTUNITIES LIKE THIS IN PLEASANTON FOR KIND OF AN EXECUTIVE LEVEL HOUSING PROJECT WHERE YOU'RE SERVING THE NEEDS OF THE BUSINESSES THAT ARE TRYING TO GROW AND EXPAND IN THIS COMMUNITY. AND, YOU KNOW, ALONG THIS RIDE WITH ME HAS BEEN THE PROPERTY OWNER, DIANE COLB, WHO IS ONE OF THE FAMILY MEMBERS. MABEL LESTER, WHO WE WENT INTO CONTRACT WITH ON THIS PROPERTY IN 2013, PASSED AWAY A FEW YEARS AGO UNFORTUNATELY. I was hoping she could be here tonight because she wanted to see this happen. The property's been in her family since 1906. And so... It is a complicated project, but it's pretty low in terms of impact. I believe the general plan would allow up to 42 units on this site when we originally started working on it. But we realized that wasn't the proper design for this project. And so we ended up with, after working with staff and PPQQ, we're down to 28 new units. But we're also bringing some significant benefits to the community that are not. CONNECTED IN ANY WAY TO A NEXUS. THERE'S NO NEXUS FOR THE PROJECT THAT REQUIRES US TO BUILD AN EAST BAY REGIONAL PARKS DISTRICT TRAIL HEAD STAGING AREA AND WHATNOT, BUT IT NEEDED TO HAPPEN. IT WAS PART OF, YOU KNOW, THE PLAN FOR IT COMPLETES THE PLEASANTON RIDGE TRAIL SYSTEM. SO WE KNEW THAT WAS SOMETHING WE WERE GOING TO DO. IN ADDITION, THERE ARE TRAFFIC ISSUES ON DOUBLIN CANYON ROAD. WE LEARNED THAT YEARS AGO WHEN WE FIRST HAD A NEIGHBORHOOD MEETING, PROBABLY BEFORE 2019, AND WE TALKED TO THE and found out that there's real concerns about the traffic. Everybody kind of knows that for Dublin Canyon Road, but when people who live there tell you about their experiences, you're like, ooh, we need to figure out if we can do something about that too. And so we were able to work with the city and the traffic engineers and whatnot and come up with a really good solution that not only helps the Canyon Meadows neighborhood, but it basically standardizes, if you will, city standards, the entire section of Dublin Canyon Road, along our frontage, along other properties' frontages, and connecting up to the existing improvements that are where the Greek Orthodox Church site is, I believe. So we're gonna be doing some additional work on the other side of the road. The city's actually going to reimburse us for it because it's not related to our project, but we're doing the design work and the construction work for the rest of that. So we'll have bike lanes up and down. We're going to have a traffic signal. We'll have the warning lights for traffic signals. We'll have our project entry. All of those things, as in a whole, serve to change the way people drive on the street. It really changes the character of this area and will help the traffic situation. The traffic signal will be huge. The other issue that was a big part of how we got this project done or were able to get it done is the property is landlocked. And so after my initial, about a year's worth of work on this project, I realized that this is a real problem. Who owns this property next door? It's the Shriners Hospital. They got it as a donation like 30 years ago. So I called them up in Tampa and I said, you guys own this property in Pleasant? Yeah, somebody told me. You want to sell it? Yes. Okay, fine. So we went into contract with them. They couldn't wait. So I ended up closing it early. I got a little discount, but I closed it early. So we own that property now and that's the front door to the project we call Hidden Canyon, because quite frankly, you can't see the project pretty, pretty much from anywhere because it's all over the ridge in the canyon. And there's five units that are on the Shriner's property that you'll see from Dublin Canyon Road, but it's a secluded project. It's gonna be gated. That was an issue that we had to deal with. I know that's still a decision that has to be made, but we believe it's the right way to treat this project. The other issue that was a complication here was to get our utilities out, we had to cross a tiny sliver of the property owned by the Jehovah's Witness Church. And we worked with them for several years Because they're nice people, but they're not real estate people and they don't understand these things. And so we were able to work out a situation where we can put our utilities and an EVA across a tiny sliver of their property right at the creek there. It's an EVA and a driveway up to the church. So we were able to give them a new driveway because they have a really steep one driveway that goes up the hill there. If you've ever been out there, you know what I'm talking about. And so we're going to provide them a new access and we're going to do some improvements on their existing access. And then the signal is designed to actually accommodate their use of that site. So they'll have a sensor there. And when they have traffic, which they do, at certain times, the signal is designed so that it'll accommodate their turning movements out of the project while traffic on Dublin Canyon Road would be stopped. And so I think it's a unique situation. We worked with Mike DeSano and Matt Nelson for quite some time and our traffic engineer to figure out how to design that traffic signal. It's in the plans. That's what's proposed. And so it's an interesting project. It has a lot of pieces that aren't necessarily related to the fact that we're just building 28 units there. But I think it's a really wonderful solution. And I know that the Lester, I appreciate the Lester family's patience. And we look forward to getting through the process finally after quite a long time. And hopefully building this project. You know, we have, as you know, if you've read the EIR, there's a lot of, mostly, most of the impacts here are biological in nature. Fortunately, we have 102 acres that we're setting aside that we can mitigate everything on that 102 acres. But that requires an extensive permitting process. And so if we get this thing entitled in March, April, May. It's going to be two years before we're out there doing anything. It takes about that long to get through the permit process. In fact, we can't submit the annexation application until the city passes its ordinance. Then we can go through the annexation process. Hopefully that's been eased a little bit by the merit property because they've paved the way. They're doing the same thing with the tax sharing agreement with the county. It's complicated. It takes time. And then the city can actually technically approve the tentative map. So anyways, it's a long process. I'm here to answer any questions. I know this is not the kind of meeting where we have discussions about all the issues, but I just wanted to kind of bring some of you up to speed and some of the audience up to speed as to how we got to this point and why it's taken so long. So thank you very much. Certainly.

Yes. Hello. I actually did tour the project, and you spoke about the gates. Where are you proposing them to be?

The gate will be at the entry on Dublin Canyon Road, which is west of the Canyon Meadows access where there's going to be a traffic signal. So it's all the way down at the other end of the project on the Shriners portion of the project. That will be the entry for the project. Now, the EVA will be gated because the fire department will have an ox box and whatnot. But there won't be any traffic on that. But there will also be the church has a driveway there now. And so that driveway, the gate to the EVA will be beyond the point where the church's new driveway will go up to their site.

Okay.

Thank you.

None at this time? Thank you. Okay. Commissioner Jago?

I do not have any questions at this time.

all right and the only question i have is could you describe just a little bit more or maybe a second time the traffic improvements one new traffic light and then a turn lane in from uh yes the uh from the west go first sorry from the east going west or no westbound eastbound traffic coming from the west we'll have a left turn free free left turn with a signal into canyon meadows and then um the signal is designed such that

The church's driveway is a little bit offset from that intersection, so the other signal will be beyond the church's driveway, and then they'll have their own signal mast in front of their driveway so that if traffic is coming from the east or west, they can stop it and leave them room to get out and proceed on Dolan Canyon Road. So it's a doable thing. It's been done before. It's like a stage traffic, I think, signal they call it. And so that would allow, that will improve the access for the church, obviously. And most of their traffic is, I think, evenings and weekends. But they sometimes have a lot of people coming in and out of there. And so, but it will certainly improve the safety and traffic situation for Canyon Meadows and the whole area, the whole strip of Dublin Canyon Road along there with the change in character of the roadway.

Any other changes to the roadway or?

Just widening the bike lanes, striping the bike lanes. Most of the tree removal is actually at that location because there's some pretty good sized trees on Dublin Canyon Road right there. There's hardly any trees on the development side at all other than that. And so there's trees that are gonna be removed to widen the road. There's a retaining wall that goes in with that because it's a very steep slope. And then to provide the bike lane, proper bike lanes up and down both sides of Dublin Canyon Road. from our entry down to the driveway into the Parks District trailhead site. And beyond, actually. I'm sorry, we're doing the across the street where the Greek Orthodox Church and the neighbor next door to the church. That section will be improved so it's not chopped up, if you will.

Okay. One more question here, I guess.

Um, I do have a question. One of the things in looking at the overall design, um, is I do have a question regarding why, if you, if you have more allowance to do more lots and you said it was, you know, you kind of gone over, over time, you came to the conclusion that 28 lots would be the target. Could you just go over a little bit of why the reduction in the number of lots? Like what, what, what did you come to, to do that?

Well, a lot of it's PPQQ, you know, so you can only fit within a certain envelope. I mean, if it were not for PPQQ, you would have a totally different site plan here. But that drives it. And then I think our original submittal was like 34 units, and we kind of worked down through PPQQ to 28. But we didn't see this site as a more... We could have put more lots if they were smaller, you know, and done a smaller product, but it just didn't seem appropriate for this site. This is more of this type of product. The homes are... 35 to 40, 400 square feet with some that have ADUs, and less is better in this situation.

And did you say that people driving on Dublin Canyon Road, they won't even be able to see most of this development other than the two to five houses on the front of it there?

Yeah, you can see on the site plan the two that are closest to Dublin Canyon Road. They'll be pretty obvious. The three at the top there, they're actually behind, there's trees there and they're sort of up on the hill, so you have to look up to see them. And then everything else, you might see like a sliver, a bit of a rooftop. And I'd like to thank First Carbon for coming tonight and for doing the EIR. And they did a visual analysis that looks at some of those issues to see what kind of visibility you have. I've had people tell me, well, you can see it from the freeway. I'm like, yeah, if you're like really quick when you're driving down the freeway and you look at, oh, I can see that side a little bit of it, but you won't see anything there. So most of it is not visible. I know there's people that live up on the top of the hill that We're going to see it when they look down from the top of the hill, down on the property. And so it's going to be visible from some locations more than others. But quite frankly, visual views are not a CEQA issue, right? But we've designed this in a way that we're developing 10% of the site and significant amount of that is the parks trail system and all that too. So we've tried to account for all the issues here and design a project that kind of fits on the site that reflects the way we do development. PROJECTS APPROVED IN PLEASANT IN THE LAST 20 YEARS THAN ANYBODY ELSE. AND WE DO REALLY GOOD QUALITY NEIGHBORHOODS OF LASTING VALUE. WE DON'T TRY TO JAM IT. WE TRY TO MAKE IT WORK AND FIT WITHIN THE NEIGHBORHOOD AND BE SOMETHING THAT'S HIGH QUALITY THAT PEOPLE RECOGNIZE AND RESPECT FOR MANY YEARS. SO THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME AND I'M AVAILABLE IF YOU HAVE ANY OTHER QUESTIONS.

ALL RIGHT. WELL, THANK YOU. SO WE'LL GO AHEAD AND OPEN THE public hearing and Stella, we have speaker cards tonight.

Yes, we have a few speakers. Okay. So let's go ahead. We have Janet Gardner, can please come up to the podium. And next will be Sarah Jane Hollister.

Okay. And for this section, we request that speakers try to limit their comments to three minutes if feasible and

Thank you. My name is Janet Gardner. I'm a 25-year resident of the Canyon Meadows community, and I'm also the current homeowner association president. Our community has expressed the need for traffic control at the intersection of Dublin Canyon and Canyon Meadows on several occasions during our community's 35-plus year history. The traffic flies on Dublin Canyon. It gets thicker as the years continue. So this is particularly problematic on the westbound blind corner on the approach to the community or part of the old Lincoln Highway Bridge. Therefore, I'm in strong support of the traffic light to be installed at Canyon Meadows and Dublin Canyon. This is a crucial piece of the Ponderosa proposal without which I would have a hard time lending support. Related, I'm in support of measures to make Dublin Canyon safer for pedestrians. Again, the bridge on the westbound approach to Canyon Meadows has a very narrow shoulder, which cars routinely cut as it's an apex to the bend in the road. This makes a walk to BART a perilous proposition, or watching kids try to ride bicycles home from school. So I had a clarifying question about pedestrian improvements. I believe I read that there is going to be some sidewalks and crosswalks in conjunction with the East Bay Regional Park.

ONE OF THE THINGS WE LOOKED AT IN THIS LONG PROCESS WAS WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT THE BRIDGE THERE AND COULD WE DO ANY WORK TO POSSIBLY WIDEN THE BRIDGE BECAUSE WE'RE TRYING TO MEET THE CITY'S ROAD STANDARDS. BUT THAT BRIDGE IS REALLY OLD. It became really difficult to figure out how we could do it without having to go way beyond what the impact of this project could generate in terms of funds to do that. Specifically, the LAVMA line is pretty close to the edge of the... southeast corner of that bridge, the Laban line is very close there. And so it was going to be a nightmare to try to figure out how to widen that bridge and at the same time protect that line and keep it in operation. So we decided this is way beyond the scope of this project. we're actually making a cash donation um despite the fact that there's probably no nexus for it but we committed to doing something about the bridge and so we're making a half a million dollar donation to the city for traffic improvement you know for capital improvements in double canyon road as part of the project um so in the future at some point that bridge will have to be replaced and there's some funds in the doubling canyon road budget and now there'll be some more and so um yeah

All right, well, thank you. Were you finished with your comments? Okay, all right, very good.

I ALSO WANTED CLARIFICATION. THE CONSTRUCTION WORK IS PROBABLY GOING TO ADD A FAIR BIT OF TRAFFIC. SO I WANTED SOME CLARIFICATION ON THE TIMING FOR THE TRAFFIC SIGNAL. WILL THAT BE AT THE TAIL END OF ALL THE CONSTRUCTION OR IDEALLY AT THE BEGINNING OF THE CONSTRUCTION? ALL RIGHT.

LET'S BRING THE NEXT SPEAKER. AND THEN WHEN WE HAVE A REBUTTAL, THEN WE'LL HAVE A At the end, we'll have the applicant ask if he has any further comments. And so he can address that if he wishes. Let's go to the next speaker, please.

Sarah Jane Hollister and followed by Sean Godusi.

Hello, I'm Sarah Jane Hollister. Welcome, I think I know some of you. I've been a resident of Pleasanton for over 55 years and have been a homeowner and have taught in Pleasanton also for 35 years. and when I was ready to downsize and retire I thought Dublin Canyon Meadows would be the perfect place to retire and to downsize and it's been wonderful development but in the course of this time and I was involved in 2017 to 2019 also Traffic has gotten way more than what it was in 2017 and 2019. And I am very concerned. It's difficult to see that map and to see where the stoplight is. And the stoplight was important in 2017 and 2019, but it's even important now. A few years ago, as a matter of fact, my immediate neighbor uh there's a curve where that bridge is and it doesn't give you enough visual sight and of course now dublin canyon road i call 580 annex because we have traffic during commute time constantly And you have to hold your breath, leaving our complex. And before somebody is majorly injured, I am happy to see this. But on the map, it's difficult to actually see where those stoplights are going to be. where the left-hand turn lane is going to be. I don't even know where the equestrian buildings are going to be, where the parking for that is. It just seems like we're putting more and more on this road and maybe there's better plans than the one that's up here. but I would hope that the Planning Commission would look at all of that. We have 244 homes in Dublin Canyon Meadows. That's a lot of people exiting and entering there every day, as well as the church that's across the road. I think it's very important that the stoplight be number one and not be put off to the end of the project. Also, if we're shutting down the road for construction, we had a tree fall down, and for me to get to my residence, I had to go over to Dublin, take Dublin Road over to where the rodeo is, and come around to my place that way. That's the only way in and out. And we've also limited our access in the preserve area. And with the construction coming up, I am very concerned that the stoplights maybe be the first thing, that the road construction be the first thing, so that we can accommodate more cars through there safely. So thank you very much. Where can I see a more intricate map? Is it online?

Yes, so if I may, so staff is happy to email, follow up with you by email after this meeting and provide a copy of the plans. There are a number of graphics included in the draft. I don't know if they have that level of detail, but we do have a complete set of project plans on file, and we'd be happy to share those with you or other residents.

So if something has to be modified, we could do that in advance?

Well, just to be clear, this is a comment on the draft environmental impact report. There will be a series of public, or at least one public hearing with the Planning Commission with the City Council, at which there will be the opportunity to look at in-depth details of the project design. So before that, we do have copies of the plans. We'd be happy to share them so that you can and provide meaningful comment when the project moves forward.

So will we have more time? On this notice it says everything has to be in by January 5th.

So January 5th is the deadline for the environmental impact report comments. There's also then subsequent meetings to talk about the project approvals.

So we will have more time after the 5th. So you will have more time.

Correct.

All right. Thank you very much. Thanks.

next is sean godusi followed by andrew gelb hi my name is sean gadusi i've been a resident of crosby drive in pleasonton which is the indirect view of this project for 20 plus years i look at that beautiful green hill every day for hours. That's where our family room is. That's where our kitchen is. That's where our bedroom windows are. And this is very concerning to me. I have a handful of questions, not necessarily comments. Can I just read them? And then someone could answer them whenever they can. Is that all right?

Some of this would likely happen after the meeting, and you'd be, say, contacting staff to get questions answered. Is this really your time just to express your concerns about the project, and then if you'd like to have a dialogue?

I think my questions could turn into concerns if the answers are no.

YOU CAN USE TWO MINUTES HERE TO DISCUSS YOUR CONCERNS AND QUESTIONS AND THEN THE APPLICANT AND STAFF MAY OR MAY NOT RESPOND TO THOSE TONIGHT AND THEN THERE WILL BE TIME FOR FOLLOW-UP TOO.

SOUNDS GOOD. IS THERE GOING TO BE ANY EXCEPTIONS TO THE GRADING AND CUT AND FILL GUIDELINES ON THIS PROJECT? That's question one. Will there be required clean energy, solar panels required to limit the amount of impact on the grid on these homes? Are there any plans to add mature trees on the south edge of this project to limit the eyesore that I'll be staring at.

To add mature trees, you're saying, or just trees in general?

Add mature trees. To reduce the ugliness of a project like this. Will there be an additional fire road added? Who will maintain it? Would there be an HOA? I'm assuming because it's gated, there will be an HOA. And what is covered under that HOA for maintaining the state of that project? Would there be a low income 55 older something like that which Pleasanton needs. As part of this project. And alongside the traffic impact on eastbound, that road is extremely dangerous from 3 to 6 PM. If you guys have ever been there, I suggest you find a different time to be there. What's the average square foot of the homes? I'm sure it's in the plans. And what is the asking price? And you guys addressed visual impact of the home from the freeway. I would like to know about the visual impact from Crosby Drive, which is right above it, staring directly at it. That's it.

Okay. And so we'll go through the rest of the speakers and then the applicant will have a chance to provide any final comments. They may or may not address some of your questions. And then before we finish tonight, we'll ask staff about what's the best way for you and others to ask additional questions to be able to get as much detailed information about this project AS YOU WOULD WANT TO SATISFY YOUR NEEDS. SO LET'S GO AHEAD WITH SPEAKER CARDS, IF WE HAVE SOME MORE. ESTELLA?

I'LL TRY TO SPEAK QUICKLY TO GET IN MY THREE MINUTES. GOOD EVENING. I'M ANDREW GELB, AND I LIVE AT 9671 CROSBY DRIVE, WHICH IS ONE OF THE NEIGHBORING LOCATIONS where the damage will be most obvious. I sent you a photo of the hillside view. Believe it or not, some have called that the best view in town. People regularly drive up and walk and take pictures and portraits there. It is not something minor that can be ignored. The draft EIR says the proposed project would not have a substantial adverse effect on a scenic vista. That's utter nonsense. And the draft EIR, I have to say, loses credibility instantly with that patently false assertion. Calling the project hidden doesn't make it hidden. This project runs roughshod over Pleasanton's hillside regulations that preserve significant features of a hill area. in essentially their natural state and minimize grading and fill consistent with retention of the natural character of the hills. City staff's original report on this project called out grading slopes that are too steep to be graded, placing homes and roads where not allowed on slopes, substantial grading, lack of conformance to measure PP, I'm very curious how they got around that, and allowing homes in designated open space. Now, I implore you to come in person to the site from Crosby Drive and see what the restrictions are not implementing. You need to see the damage that you're being asked to approve. Could you hold up for just one second?

You're doing great, but for some reason there's a lot of static feedback.

How's that?

That's great, thank you.

Okay. You need to see the damage you're being asked to approve. This is desecration. Back in 2019, Herb Ritter, a member of this commission, came to see for himself, which I'm asking you to do. He then made it clear during that 2019 meeting that the developer must try harder to minimize the visual blight. Some of these points were made at that hearing. If the number of houses won't be reduced, and they should be, They should be less of an eyesore. They should be single story. The houses, roads, retaining walls should have earth tone colors that blend into the hillside. Retaining walls should be planted and terraced and not so clearly scar the hillsides. And the recent drawings that they have placed in the file show that they are so high and so big, but that's because they have to do that because they can't otherwise flatten the hills to make their pads. Mr. Ritter made it clear that tall and, yes, mature trees, the size of the heritage trees that are going to be removed, must be planted around the development for visual screening. There are power poles and power lines on the property that city staff has told me will be or should be removed and undergrounded. There's also a plan to put pipes down the fire road from Crosby Drive to Dublin Canyon Road. Well, if that's the case, then the developer or the city has to repave that road and maintain it and the wooden fence along it. And if driveway to my house is cut open for those pipes, that's going to have to be replaced. Any East Bay Regional Park walkways and parking lot must be secured and monitored for fire safety. That hillside is an absolute tinderbox in the summer. Fire safety measures must be enforced. Now, I know under current state law and the housing element, this project won't be rejected in its entirety. But you have to understand, despite the fact that they have decreased the number, it is still too much, too many houses, too much grading and flattening of those hillsides. And there is much that can be done. I've mentioned a few things to help mitigate it. Now, Ponderosa told us at the very first time we met with them that we are not like other developers. We care about and listen to and work with impacted neighbors. And those are quotes, by the way. I was there and took notes. But I have to tell you, sadly, nothing of the sort has taken place. There has been no communication, no collaboration, nothing from Ponderosa. They know we're there. They can say visually it's unimportant. It is important to some of us. So I call upon Ponderosa, I'm sure they're not bad people, but to heed their own promises. Work with your neighbors to make this project as palatable as possible. You promised and you failed. and I call upon the city to insist that they do so and create and impose conditions so that the valuable rights and interests of current Pleasanton residents are not completely ignored. Insist the developer try harder than it has to the extent that it's tried at all to minimize the blight they intend to bring to Pleasanton and to not ignore what already has been requested by the city. Thank you. I'm sorry I went over my three minutes. They've had six years. We only have three minutes.

Ms. Stillman, do we have other speaker cards?

Yes. Next is Robert Devaney followed by Guy Houston.

Good evening. Thank you for making time for us tonight. My name is Robert Devaney. My family owns the 160-acre parcel that's immediately west of the – you see the yellow box there. That westernmost line is the start of our property, and it goes west about 1,200 feet and comprises a hundred, and we, basically our family, so we are the Devanis of Devaney Canyon. This is not Hidden Canyon. This is Devaney Canyon. That's a recognized geographic place name. Devaney Creek flows through it. That was shown in the DEIR, but regardless, Much of this land of the project itself was owned by my family. The lands were purchased in January of 1866, and so we've had continuous ownership of the one parcel to the west since then. So we have historically, for a very long period of time, used the central portion of the project site, basically more or less following that road off of Dublin Canyon Road to the east. And it basically bisects through where the central housing area is, and it crosses into what is committed to the East Bay Regional Parks in the green area. We use that road as the sole access to our property. and we pulled in a subject matter expert, we reviewed the records that we have, and the records indicate that while we don't have a recorded easement, we have established the rights for that easement through California law. So this road, it's shown in several of the exhibits in the DEIR. Exhibit 2.3, aerial, shows portions of it. Exhibit 2.6 shows portions of it, although it inaccurately shows that that road ends in the green area before it reaches the corner just below that residential house. That's the property owned by the Staley's. And then it crosses into our land right there. So that is the way that we maintain our cattle operation. This land is protected under the Williamson Act. And we have no structures there, but we keep cattle there through a tenant process. So when we reviewed the DER, we didn't see any reference to the existence of this road, to the use of this road. and the fact that this is a key access point to our property. So we think that that is a deficiency, that this potentially has significant impacts. Certainly to us it would have very significant impacts, but we think more broadly in the EIR context it does. You know, there's several sections. The page 220, page 31011, it does not discuss the compatibility with surrounding uses. That's clearly incompatible with the surrounding uses, our use. There's numerous other things. There will be transportation impacts from our use of our easement within the project. We have farm vehicles, trucks, the movement of cattle seasonally, things like that. So that will have impacts on this project. And all of this needs to be carried into the cumulative impacts, the project alternative sections. There's just no coverage at all for any of this. And we're really surprised because we raised this issue back in 2019 in this room, and it was apparently ignored or misunderstood or something. But in part, that's why we brought in a subject matter expert to look at this carefully. This is a real thing, we think. So we think that it does pose significant impacts And to satisfy the requirements of CEQA, this needs to be resolved because I don't think this is an approvable EIR as it stands.

Thank you. Okay.

Guy Houston followed by Diane Lester Kolb.

Mr. Chair, members of the commission, Guy Houston, 7885 and 7815 Canyon Meadow. I'm a newcomer in the Canyon Meadow community. Before that, I was actually work very closely with the Greek Orthodox Church on their project, which will be coming in the future. I am here to say that I think this is environmentally, this is a home run for the city of Pleasanton. You've got a lot of open space that's going to be set aside. You have a regional, working with the East Bay Regional Parks, you have a regional recreation facility. And the part of this that has been spoken by some of the others from Canyon Meadow The big one for me is the traffic improvements on Dublin Canyon Road. It is dangerous. It's been dangerous. I've been around long enough where there's been accidents out there, and there's a lot more close calls than we'd like here to think about. uh... but uh... this is a a great improvement and from what i understand there is no money in the city of pleasanton for these improvements particularly for the the stoplight uh... so it's a huge benefit and win for the city of pleasanton in in all three of those areas uh... and uh... you know certainly very interested in this process and going forward and and to see this to completion i'd also add that People in the preserve, I've been around long enough to know that people said the same things about them back when those houses were built. And so this is just part of the process. But this is a huge win for the city of Pleasanton and the citizens. And staff's done a great job up to this point in time. It's just taken too long. 12 years. We got to get this done. And I appreciate your time.

Diane Lester Kolb. And then finally, Jeff Schroeder.

Hi, I'm Diane Lester-Kobe. My family's been out there for at least 73 years. I got there at the age of one year. This project to me means a lot to my family. My mother has passed, so she has not been able to see the finish of it. Everything that we have working with Ponderosa, with the park district, the open space, keeping the wildlife there, The signal for our neighbors to be safe. I mean, we're not being selfish, saying we want these houses. We're looking out for the neighborhood. We're looking out for Pleasanton. It's a great plan that Ponderosa has done and worked with us, even though it's taken 11 years. I don't see any negativity in it myself. That stoplight was gonna save some lives because my son did get in an accident at that church entrance years ago with my mother. So we know what an accident's like on that section. So that stoplight is definitely gonna help. The traffic is busy. but i think with the light coming in may change the whole deal that people might want to stay on that damn freeway instead of taking the scenic ride and because they people that ride their bicycles are in danger and even coming in and out of my driveway and especially coming in my driver i've almost been hit several times for people that will not slow down go across behind me and go around the bridge and I just hold my breath every time that they don't kill me. So this project to me, I'm hoping you guys can see the benefit of it, because it's not just for my family, but it's for Pleasanton as well, and for our neighbors, and for our wildlife. Thank you.

And finally, Jeff Schroeder.

Rebuttal. As always, a rebuttal. Before we do that, if anybody else would like to speak, please approach the podium at this time. So Jeff, if you could wait just a bit.

Yeah. Hello, I'm Ted Vinson. I'm at 11029 Dublin Canyon Road. I'm actually not on the road. I'm a mile and a half up in Devaney Canyon at the head of Devaney Canyon on property that my family has had for 70 years. We're kind of the newcomers in the area because you had Bob Devaney here. You had Diane Lester, which is Tara, actually, and the Cronins aren't represented. That's another family. They've been around for about 150 years. East Bay Regional Park came in, I don't know, 30 years ago, 40 years ago. I kind of view them as the newcomers. First, I would like to thank whoever moved the parking and staging area out of the meadow, the middle of the meadow, and moved it back to a location where the meadow has now been, well, a good start for its preservation. The next major consideration in terms of preserving the meadow, which is certainly the thrust of my presentation, is how the park users will get from that staging and parking area to the entrance to the trail, the trail that goes up to Pleasanton Ridge, the north end of Pleasanton Ridge Park. That trail has actually been constructed It is already built and over the past month or so, I have already experienced at least, and personally, 20 bikers that have been on my driveway who basically trespassed into the park. went right by the signs and then were encouraged by the trail contractor and even the trail supervisor with East Bay Regional Park to come down the trail after they had trespassed. The Alameda County Sheriff Department has been up there to try to deal with the issue. You can't really deal with it when a bicyclist comes up. I've confronted literally a dozen of them. And even the fact that they trespassed, it doesn't seem to matter. And consequently, I bring that up as a major issue in terms of getting the park users from that parking lot over to the entrance and ensuring that they don't basically practice very bad, well, user manners. A few other issues, and I'm happy to work with anyone, I don't know if we have any representatives here from East Bay Regional Park, but I would be happy to work with them. I am in contact with the trail supervisor and hopefully that will be something in the future that will not lead to the issues that I just pointed out. Beyond that, I believe that the East Bay Regional Park slash Vinson driveway, because we share the driveway, and in fact I've been on the driveway for 70 years, they are the newcomers, that that should be separate from the driveway and access to the parking area. I believe the gates that are shown in the draft environmental report should be moved to Dublin Canyon Road. And again, that those driveways be kept separate. Beyond that, The effect of the hydrology and the change in hydrology associated with the development is not really clear to me. And I'm a little bit concerned about it because what was done at the preserve and approved by the city, you own it now, is to dump the stormwater, literally dump the stormwater from the preserve at two locations near Dublin Canyon Road into just the old drainages, and with the result, when you pave an area, it's just basic hydrologic principles, when you pave an area, you actually get a shorter retention and you get a higher peak in terms of the flow. And at the two locations I'm referring to, it absolutely blows out the culverts and the crossing there, I would say once every three or four years. I mean, Diane can support me on this. I don't know why it was ever approved. And consequently, I am concerned when I read in the report, if I can find the wording, but basically says that there's not gonna be, oh.

I'd like to ask you to try to wrap up as well, if you can, the next minute or so.

But it says that all water is controlled, which is just a statement. It says all water is controlled. And of course, I can read and read the size of the piping and the stormwater system, et cetera. But in a way, I kind of don't believe it. The flooding on Dublin Canyon Road, and there's others here that can substantiate this, from Canyon Meadows, Diane, and Canyon Creek, the flooding is so severe on Dublin Canyon Road that when the cars drive through it, they create a rooster tail, like you're out water skiing. It's unbelievable.

So if you could please wrap up and then the opportunity for you to contact staff.

Well, one of the things I would say is that when you divert water, you actually are controlled by the State Water Resources Control Board. So in this area, after you have diverted the water, I do wonder, is the control board, have they been notified? Because they're concerned about my diversion of water. And therefore, I have to believe they would be concerned about this diversion of water.

All right. Thank you, sir.

And I will have a written report that I'll submit.

Thank you very much. And we'll look for other opportunities to help the public get more educated and have more input here, too, since there's obviously a lot of interest. at this point we'd like to ask the app applicant would you wish to respond to the public comments and obviously there's a lot of questions and people are hungry for information and there's no way you can answer all of that tonight we'll have to work with you and have to try to provide some more information yeah we'll have to work with you and staff to figure out how we there's going to be other hearings to have these conversations so

But regarding the Canyon Meadows situation and the signal, it's a good improvement for everybody. And right now the plan is not to install it up front because there's a lot of construction work that has to happen and a lot of money that gets spent before there's any traffic on the road other than construction traffic, which is not a significant volume of traffic. a point, I think, number of permits that would be installed. But I think it's like 11. That's what we've talked about.

That's something we can have more conversations about.

The scenic issues are, you know, this is private property, and so it's great that you can look at it and get a great view, but private property owners have the right to develop their properties. We're gonna look at, I hear the comments of the two property owners at the top of the hill. You know, frankly, if, this project were in place now and that project was being developed it probably wouldn't get developed today because it's up on the hill and it was before PPQQ and so we had to deal with PPQQ and we spent a ton of money and time figuring out what the development area would be that's allowed on this property and that's all we can do is fit the property into this envelope that meets PPQQ and so that's why it is what it is and There's various other issues we can discuss at a later point brought up by some people. There's no legal record of any easement on the ranch Mr. Devaney talked about, but we are preserving access. The portion of the property that's going to be donated to East Bay Regional Parks District will be mitigation land, but it'll also be ranch land. That's what it's always been. And there's access to that from the end of the subdivision cul-de-sac there on the south side of the project. So there's a road that will go up there. And the person that ranches Mr. Devaney's project ranches this property right now as well. And so the plan is to allow them to continue that, because that's how the rangeland is preserved, that preserves the species that's out there, right? So it's part of the, there's a whole, if you look at the EIR, there's three plans, I think, for the biological resources out there that'll be implemented over time.

Are you saying your plan is to continue to allow them to access their property through your improvements?

Yes, yes, yes.

It will have to be.

That'll be part, because it's going to be part of the East Bay Parks District property. It'll be eventually their property. I did this in Danville a few years ago. We did 100 and some odd acres of hillside to East Bay Regional Parks District, and we provided trail access for residents there, and we had a whole, there's a whole mitigation plan that goes in. There's an easement holder that manages it. It's a 10-year process through the water board and through the state fish and wildlife and so there's a whole process that sets all that up so it can operate in perpetuity there's an endowment that's established to allow it to be funded in perpetuity frankly and then um so the uh i guess the the trail trespassers and that this will hopefully take care of that problem because now there's a place where they can go and get on their bikes and go up the trail and onto the parks trail so that will hopefully take care of mr vincent's problem stormwater as you probably know is heavily managed There's a lot of work that's gone into this preliminary design of the stormwater problem. We can't release any more water off the site than already goes off the site. And we have basins and treatment facilities within the project that treat that water and then release it into, there will be an outfall right by the bridge for the stormwater that's on this side. The existing problem that was spoken about is on that road. So that road that Mr. Vinson and Mr. Devaney drive on is actually on the Lester property. It's an easement that they have over the property. And there is a storm drain that comes down there that's been a problem. And so one of the conditions that we're dealing with with staff will be how to fix that as part of the improvements that we're doing for the Parks District to take care of that storm drain situation. So there's a lot of other technical things we can get into later, but I just wanted to address some of those issues now, and I'm available for any questions you might have.

You talked about releasing stormwater. Will there be basins that will be released from, or it will just be that stormwater makes natural flow?

No, no, you can't. Every project that's developed now has to treat every drop of water that hits an impervious surface, so roofs, Concrete flag, you know, driveways, sidewalks, roadways, all that water has to be treated in a facility on site, right? And it's got magic dirt. I mean, it literally has a section of soil that's designed with organics to treat oil and grease and things like that that come off a road. So all that goes through that. It's also a retention facility. So it retains it. So the stormwater that comes out of the pipe by the bridge will not exceed the stormwater that runs off the site now. So it doesn't increase the stormwater flow.

And I think you're saying that not only the amount of water, but the flow rate of the water, too. So the retention pond will slow the

stormwater right you can't release you have you have hydro modification which is when you're releasing too much water and at a higher velocity and a quantity than existed before so you have to mitigate that and you have to treat the water from a water quality standpoint as well so that's we do that with every project i have nine lot projects that have their own basin okay so yeah and the homeowners association established just for that this is this will have a homeowners association that manages their open space there's going to be a fire management plan all this stuff is part of the process now that we go through so it's there's extensive you know all these issues are pretty much addressed through the project approvals and the eir so but we'll have opportunities to get into more detail at later meetings

Commissioners, have any questions for the applicant before we close the public hearing and move to discussions by the Planning Commission? All right, looks like we're good for now. So we'll close the public hearing and let's take a five minute break and then we'll come back and then we'll have a deliberation with the, just among the planning commission here where we'll discuss our ideas and questions about the project and we'll also have to, I'm gonna hope that we will also talk about what we will likely want to do to try to make it easier for the public to become more educated and be able to answer a lot of the questions that were asked tonight, since the public is obviously hungry for more information about the project and the roadway and the access, et cetera. So let's take a five-minute break, and then we'll come back for discussions among the Commission here. Thank you. All right, we're back on air. And this is our opportunity for the Planning Commission to have discussion amongst ourselves and try to understand. Sorry, this is an opportunity for Planning Commission to have a discussion amongst ourselves and to understand whether there are common themes to leave with staff between now and the next meeting. So my understanding is that we'll we're in the public comment period now for the EIR, draft EIR and currently that's slated to complete on January 5th and then at that point sometime after that the EIR would be finalized and staff would review and then staff would address a number of other issues that aren't specifically addressed in the ER, but they're just part of the planning process for the project itself. And then eventually it will come before the Planning Commission again, and maybe that would be late first quarter or early second quarter or something like that. Does that seem like about the right timeline?

Yeah, I think you captured it really well, Chair Morgan. We're aiming to bring this back in the spring of 26, I think March is our tentative date. So that's, it will come back in a few months for the public hearings for review and that will include, as Derek outlined, the responses to comments on the draft EIR and all of the typical stuff that you see, a full discussion of the project grading, conformance to PP and QQ, hydrology, home designs, all of those things and conditions of approval for consideration for the overall project approval.

And then for the half dozen residents here tonight that have numerous questions about the project and want a lot of detailed information either about the road or the runoff or access, how would you suggest that we make sure that they have plenty of opportunity and information to address all their questions?

So we definitely recommend that they reach out by email to Derek here and, you know, can submit questions by email. We can either aim to answer those questions or direct them to where in the EIR that information might be provided if it helps us. And we know it's a really lengthy document and not easy to necessarily read quickly, so we can help by orienting folks to the information where it's found in the document, provide things like more PDFs of the project plans if they're interested in seeing like the roadway improvement so they can examine those in more detail. That's all information that's publicly available and can be provided if folks want to reach out with those questions to staff.

And if people aren't sure how to contact Derek, I guess one mechanism is that the notice that went out to people that lived within 1,000 feet, I guess they have your contact information.

Yeah, they have my phone number and my email. Pardon? They have my phone number and my email. And a number of people have reached out already about that.

And if they don't have the notice or lost the notice or maybe they were here tonight but they didn't actually receive a notice, then how might they contact you?

I believe it's on our city website, when you look under the project page. So if you go to the project page in the city website, you'll see my contact information there, both my email and my phone number.

Okay, for Derek Farmer here, okay. All right, well, in terms of discussion amongst ourselves, what other thoughts do people have? Mr. Diego?

I have a lot of them. Good. I'll try to make it quick. Yeah, no, take your time. Kind of an overview on the project. Commissioner Wedge and I got a chance to go out and view the site from a lot of different perspectives. We walked up to the area where the homes would be, really got a sense of the project itself. I'm a 25-year resident of the city of Pleasanton. And you know, this is an area that I think that you have to we have to think about the the target market and it is you know, an executive home location. So you know, there's a lot of other projects that we are reviewing that are affordable housing, required housing, this is This is something else where it's kind of often and more secluded gated facility area and with a very small amount of homes. I think one of the things that we need to target that I'm looking at is the it's 100 and basically 131 acres and 19.17 acres are actual lot boundaries. which is an incredibly small amount of the overall site, which I think is something that because of the PPQQ requirements, I'm used to a project like this, you'd have 300, 400 units in what I've been used to as an architect over the years. And so the fact that Pleasanton has put in measures to bring a project of this size sense of such a large project but it is in the in the hillside i think it's it's it's it's amazing to see that you know we're only providing 28 28 lots they are not going to be seen from from public and i i think one of the big things um i thought the answer was great on providing access to the to the landlogged areas i think that was very smart but the the biggest thing i think that that I got out of the comments, and this is just for me, is the use of the word blight in referring to this project. And that I have a major issue with. Because people, when they're speaking of a housing project being just in general blight, we are all talking about people who are living in our own homes. And so does that mean that all homes are blight or why is this one? And I don't think this project, when I've been dealing with the hillside projects over the last 30 years and realizing that homes on top of ridges are what we're really targeting, where people can see them from all avenues you look at housing projects you see houses everywhere and i think this project does an amazing job of building sensitively in an area where very few other existing homes are going to even see them much less the 131 acres are going to be minimally affected by it so i i'm looking at this as a as an incredible um project in a sense of everything that it's providing the city but yet doing a very minimal amount of construction on a 131 acre project so and what it's giving with the parks the open area the um everything it gets i have a very positive effect on on the project itself um

Sorry, if I may, through the Chair, I just perhaps want to remind the Commission this is really a meeting to talk about the content of the EIR and adequacy of that review versus the merits of the project. You will have an opportunity a few months from now to opine with the comprehensive detail and data about the project in front of you and public comment as well on the project itself. just wanted to maybe just reiterate that from our sort of scope of this meeting and scope of commissioner comments.

That's good education for me too because I thought we were talking about the project itself too but.

We certainly appreciate questions that you might have or items that you would like to see clarified when we come back but I think at this point it's really focused on the draft EIR would be most helpful for staff.

Yeah.

Okay. Thank you for the clarification. I was, I was going off on it. Um, I think, I think then I think from our perspective is the, um, um, the, the street lights are going to be, I think the biggest, i think one of the biggest positives and the thing that's going to affect most people um and so i think that's going to be something that we're definitely going to want to see um the impacts of that um and i know uh the we talked a lot about uh water mitigation um that was one of the things that um i will be interested in seeing uh the the gentleman spoke about the impact of water mitigation, and I've noticed over the last 10 years that's probably become the biggest issue with any project of any size that's come in front of projects that we've done, both commercial, multifamily, and housing, the water mitigation and onsite. um so i think that's something that um the public is obviously something that they're going to want to see but you know things like solar power and and stuff like that i know that's all code required anyway and so i think um possibly getting that information to to the public and showing that these are things that, yes, they may be worried about, but are all going to be massively code enforced and required for the project to even get remotely approved. And so I think from our EIR perspective, those pieces of information are going to be REQUIRED TO BE IN THERE, AND ALL THAT INFORMATION I THINK WILL BE HELPFUL TO EVERYBODY. THANK YOU.

AND I THINK MOST PEOPLE UNDERSTAND, DIRECTOR CLARK, WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT HERE, THE DIFFERENTIATION BETWEEN THE DRAFT EIR AND THE OVERALL PROJECT, BUT MAYBE IT'S STILL BEING DIGESTED A LITTLE BIT BY FOLKS. IF YOU WOULDN'T MIND JUST ONE MORE TIME TALKING ABOUT WHAT YOU discussing is in scope tonight versus what we'll address later when the project comes before us as a full project. So for tonight only, we're looking at... One night only.

Yeah, so this is the opportunity in a public meeting forum for there to be comments provided about the scope and the adequacy of the analysis that's in the environmental impact report. Did we cover the topics? Is there anything that should have been analyzed that wasn't? Are the impact conclusions appropriate? Is there any missing information? That sort of thing.

Related to the different sections of the ER, which might be traffic and noise and impact on the environment. And wildfires and all of those elements of the EIR, draft EIR. That's correct.

So all the things, the content that Derek outlined would be good items to comment on. But, you know, generally I understand issues or concerns, but think about those in the context of environmental issues within the scope of the CEQA document. and that's the purpose of tonight's meeting. Going forward, and when we come back in, I'll say March, for public hearings, and ultimately this will come both to the Planning Commission and to our city council in a series of public hearings, that will include a much more in-depth analysis of all aspects of the project. that allow you to render your decision on those project approvals and entitlements and so that's the next step much more information will be provided again at that part of that project and opportunity obviously for public comment um on the merits of the project from the commission and from from the community all right commissioner jago did you have additional comments too related to this the draft dir

No, actually I think all of the major areas of the project are definitely going to be addressed in my mind that are gonna be the most important items. And there was nothing I saw that any major areas that were left out. Thank you.

Mr. Jane. I think just listening from the neighbors and residents in the area, I think they covered a lot of points. They actually know that area better than me and a lot of people sitting on this dais. So I have a few questions. I heard a comment about this whole view and If I recall correctly, the Measure PP and Measure QQ are those mostly focused on top of the hills and grading, so you don't have really steep hills which get graded. You don't have houses which are going on top of the mountains. Could we clarify a little bit? What was the intent of some of those measures?

So broadly, it's hillside and ridgeline protection. So it's creating designs that minimize the amount of grading and disruption of steep slopes, slopes over, I think, 25% in particular. and also things that cause changes to the sort of topography of the ridgelines. It's preserving the ridgelines as sort of as visually intact as possible in terms of their natural forms. One of the things though that Measure PP and QQ does is it balances the fact that there is private property under the umbrella of PP and QQ, and so there is a balance of allowing for some amount of development, but for that development to occur in a manner that respects those hillside and ridgeline conditions. So again, this is probably a topic that you'll get a lot more background information on when the report comes back. But broadly speaking, it's, I'll say protect hillside and ridgeline protection, but that's balanced with, you know, obviously a reasonable right. So there's, you know, we can't take people's property by making it so hard to develop that nothing can be built. And so that was part of PP&QQ was maintaining some of those private property rights in conjunction with some of those hillside preservation goals.

And one of the things which I'm curious about is what does EIR cover in terms of views? So this is, there's a depression in the canyon and that's where I believe most of the development is happening, which is not going to be viewable from the street or only from certain streets. So does that get covered as part of EIR?

Yeah, so the way that the CEQA is structured is it creates a series of thresholds of significance, and those are kind of basically criteria or parameters under which that environmental impact is evaluated. And so I think for aesthetics, there's for light and glare, disrupting a scenic vista. Mary's nodding over there. and change in visual character. And those things are really, it's a little bit subjective. And so generally speaking, what those parameters are looking at are public views. So we do not protect, there's no view easement. We don't protect private viewpoints. So all of the vantage points that we analyzed from were from public streets rights-of-way and then the ideas really is is it is it something that's consistent and compatible it's impossible to build something that doesn't completely doesn't change a natural viewpoint but in the context of aesthetic considerations is it is it a does it rise to a level of significance in terms of changing that viewpoint irreparably or without mitigation so that's the balancing act and Aesthetics is probably one of the hardest topics because it's a little bit of subjectivity in that analysis. But there are defined thresholds that are looked at and we evaluate against in order to come up with conclusions about whether or not there is a significant or less than significant impact.

Thank you. There is a discussion which we did not touch too much upon today yet. It's about vehicles miles traveled, VMT, or is it trips? I don't know. Miles. So that was coming out to be 14 percent as opposed to 15, and that's a very nuanced number. We are not close to a transit in this case. So can you Just for clarification, what are we looking at? Or maybe even the authors of the report, if they want to come and explain. Just want to get a little bit more perspective in what it is and how we compute those.

So maybe I'll start, and Mary or Pratna, if you want to come up to chime in. But vehicle miles traveled is basically, it is a quantitative standard. It's looking at average literal road miles traveled by vehicles in the project and how that compares to a regional average. That's the threshold. So if it's more than 15% above that sort of comparative average, then it's considered to be a significant impact. And then on the back end of that, the EIR looks at possible mitigation measures. So in some circumstances, you can provide better access to transit or biking, and that might help to reduce some of those VMT impacts. In this case, as you noted, there is a slight overage compared to that 15%. because you can imagine that people that live here, because they're a little bit further out from the center of town, will be driving for most of their daily needs and so generating more than the average number of trips compared to other parts of Pleasanton or the comparison geography. And then equally, it's difficult to find ways to mitigate those impacts in this location because there is no bus stop near here. There's not a transit route that runs nearby. So the number of viable, they really have to be actual sort of achievable mitigations that actually do reduce, they can't just be sort of speculative. reductions. And so it's difficult to come up with those. And that's those two factors together the location coupled with the the challenge in finding suitable mitigation led to the significant and unavoidable VMT impact.

Thank you. Anything you want to add? That's good. Got it. Great. Awesome. Excellent. Good job. I think I feel like the traffic is a concern which came up through the voice of neighbors as well as just the road itself. There's the high-speed traffic. That was covered part of the EIR and I believe there's a proposal to put lights to ease some of those concerns. And that all came out of EIR or that's part of EIR plus talking to neighbors?

So both. So with our traffic engineering staff, we spent a long time working with Ponderosa and their traffic engineers to really look at the road conditions, also the city's standards for providing bike lanes and pedestrian access. and then making sure that there was adequate opportunities for vehicles to slow down and get into the project or to come out and to have the right kind of turnpockets and things like that to allow those transitions. So all of that was considered and is part of the Dublin Canyon Road traffic improvements as well as the traffic signal that you mentioned.

Is that specifically part of the EIR?

So that's part of the project that was analyzed and one of the thresholds in the CEQA document is whether or not the project would cause a safety impact by creating some unsafe geometry or a weird turning movement that would not be acceptable within typical traffic engineering practices. So it is looked at as a topic in the CEQA document in the transportation section.

And I think today we heard some legal disputes. Is that something in scope of EIR? Like, people are saying easements exist, not exist. I just want to be sure, like, is that something which this commission or city has a say in it? Or that's something which is out of scope?

It's out of scope of the EIR. I think the commenter did make a number of comments about concerns about, for example, slow moving agricultural vehicles and whether that would cause conflicts with project traffic or other traffic. And that may in fact be an issue that we would want to respond to and provide some additional information on. But as far as the private easements and the status of that, that's not part of the EIR. It's really because those are private agreements between different property owners versus being within the purview of the city or this EIR.

And I believe someone already addressed it. There will be bioswales and some filtration before the water goes out. So we are following the standard practices as required.

Yeah, there's a very extensive series of stormwater management plans that are part of the civil plans that describe how stormwater will be treated and managed from this project.

And there were some questions for East Bay Parks, I believe, just the access to trails. We don't have anybody today. Is there something which can be passed on to them?

Yeah, I think those were good items to flag to make sure that we covered things like that. I think it was particularly sort of a safety and trespassing concern from the resident, from users of the trail today and in the future. So I think that's a reasonable thing to bring back some more information on when you consider the project.

Thank you. Commissioner Wedge?

I have the same question about the East Bay Regional Park. So thank you for bringing that up. I'd like to get information when we get to that point. In regards to comments about access for the 100 acres and for the cattle and for the gentleman.

Whether that's impinging on the neighbors that live there?

Neighbors, correct. I want to make sure that it's a clear pathway and the neighbors are happy and they're able to get their cattle through. I'm not sure with the trailer and, um, in regards to the D E I R, I don't have any comments on that, but I do believe the public comment should be extended by maybe two weeks just due to the holidays between Thanksgiving and, and Christmas. I feel this is such a robust project and I feel that something we should consider, um, giving the public a little bit more time just due to the time of the year.

Mr. Jane and Jago, any thoughts about extending the request for comments for another week or two because of the holiday season?

Is that date based on the 45-day?

Yes, and if this is under consideration, we would recommend that it would be extended to 60 days because that's generally in CEQA, that's generally the extension period is 15 extra calendar days.

Would that meet your, yeah, and Commissioner Jane, Commissioner Jago, any concerns about extending it to 60 days?

No, I think because of Christmas and New Year's, I don't think a lot's going to be able to happen, so I don't have a problem with that.

So I guess you can consider that a Planning Commission recommendation is to extend it to 60 days?

And then for the record, that would be, I believe, January 20th.

So staff would basically issue a follow-up notice to let the folks know that the comment period had been officially extended, and that's within our ability to do under the CEQA guidelines.

All right. Well, the big concerns I heard tonight were about traffic on Dublin Canyon Boulevard. And I agree that that's a challenging area to drive through, because when you're coming from the west, you're coming down the hill, People aren't always abiding by the speed limit there. You can have your foot off the gas pedal and still be going faster than you should be going. And there's also a lot of traffic from 580 that people talked about cutting over. And from what I can tell, the improvements that are being made here, they're going to make the situation significantly better than it is now. And it may not be perfect, but from what I can tell so far, and we'll get a chance to review this again, in a few months, but I think that that roadway is going to be significantly safer than it is now with the stoplight and the turn lanes. And so I guess I am wondering if anybody else has any other thoughts or concerns, or do you also tend to think of this as a big improvement?

My wife commutes home from Santa Clara three to four nights a week. And unfortunately, because of 580, she is one of the sometimes traffic people that has to bail off and take this route home, not because she wants to. It's literally the way you have to come home. And she has kind of stated the same thing that everybody has stated tonight. It's a... unnerving area and you know there's certain areas where you where it's hard to imagine having to come out uh onto that road and so i think this that's one of the things that once the once we really get to see the full you know kind of plan and see where those lights are and the extension of the road and everything i think it's going to be a significant improvement yeah any other thoughts mr jane or wedge

I agree on the light. I like that it also will protect the people from the church because they have the same type of turning issue. I've taken that road. I've lived here for 45 years and it's a very busy road during traffic hours and it does flood. I've been through that so I think that this will slow the traffic down and I think it's a huge improvement to the area.

Yeah, I think for me, I just want to cross all the T's and dot all the I's, especially on measure PPs, because that's the will of the voters. And I believe when I looked at the SITE PLAN, AND I MET WITH THE APPLICANT, FULL DISCLOSURE HERE, AND WE LOOKED AT THE DETAILS OF LOTS. SO THERE WERE LIMITATIONS ON HOW MUCH THEY CAN GRADE AND HOW MUCH THEY COULD ACTUALLY CUT AND FILL ON THE SITES. SO I JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE AS PART OF THE EIR, WE ARE NOT MAKING ANY EXCEPTIONS TO THOSE STRINGENT REQUIREMENTS WHICH VOTERS APPROVED. And I believe so that's the case. That's the main recommendation and it should not be any special treatment to this project than any other project. It seems like the EIR was done independently, not under the influence of the applicant. And the city will do the right thing and play that role of kind of that neutral party. WE DO NEED HOUSING IN THE CITY, BUT WE ALSO HAVE WILL OF THE VOTERS WHICH IS GOING TO BE UPHELD IN SITUATIONS LIKE THIS. SO I JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE EIR COVERS IT. I'M PRETTY SURE IT DOES. BUT THERE WERE SOME CONCERNS RAISED BY PEOPLE TODAY AND YOU MIGHT SEE MORE THROUGHOUT THE PERIOD. SO MAKE SURE WE ARE IN COMPLIANCE.

And one of the other concerns that was raised was related to water runoff, the amount of water and the velocity of the water. It seems like those issues are generally very well studied in EIRs. And the agencies look at that very, very closely. And so I'm confident that that's being addressed with the retention ponds. But I look forward to seeing the finalized EIR. And I'll make sure I review that too. But it seems like those issues are being well addressed. The one other questioner. CONCERN I HAD WAS RELATED TO THE AESTHETICS OF THE PROJECT, AND THAT IS THAT FOR PEOPLE THAT ARE GOING UP THERE TO LOOK AT THE PROJECT SITE, HOW CAN THEY TELL, YOU KNOW, OF THIS, I THINK IT WAS ROUGHLY 500 ACRES AND THERE'S 100 SOME ACRES THAT ARE GOING TO BE DEVELOPED, SO ONLY MAYBE 25% OF IT, HOW CAN THEY TELL where the boundaries might be where the ends of the roadways might be because if they go up to look at the site they may you know they may be concerned about houses being built up in that whole area and up into the hills but in reality the project site might be down and more in the depression so I'M JUST WONDERING HOW THE PUBLIC CAN GET MORE INFORMED OVER THE NEXT TWO TO THREE MONTHS BEFORE WE GET TO THE PUBLIC HEARING ABOUT WHERE THE BOUNDARIES OF THE DEVELOPMENT MIGHT ACTUALLY BE AND EVEN FOR US AS WE'RE GOING UP THERE.

It's a really interesting question because frankly it's challenging. It's a very big site and so short of literally modeling the project in real space on the site, it's hard to do. Even flagging corners and things like that, it's very hard to orient yourself.

What about flagging the ends of the roads or something like that?

You could do something like that at Dublin Canyon Road.

Not at Dublin, not just Dublin Canyon Road, but the access that's going up to the subdivision. If you could pull the map up, please. It looks like it's got two or three dead ends for the access road. So yeah, right here you can see where those courts are, where the roads end, basically the circles that are up on top. For example, if there was somehow some kind of a stake in the middle of those turnarounds, there's something that made it easier for people, including me, to go up there to see where the end of the project is.

Yeah, so, well, it's private property, so really it would be about what can you see from off-site. You know, I think we can talk to the applicant about, you know, if there's interest by the Planning Commission in arranging another site visit and having those sorts of features marked, we can probably talk about some possibilities there. for the public there is no general public access so I think it's whatever you could see from Dublin Canyon Road and that's pretty hard to demonstrate spatially because because the grading will change you know when the project happens so it's not going to be at the same a pad is not going to be necessarily at surface level so

I was thinking about the people that were describing it as a blight or as athletically. And so I don't know if people have a good sense for where the development itself ends.

So one thing that we did do was develop some visual simulations of the project. There's one actually that we prepared from, the consultants prepared from Crosby Court. Right. Crosby Drive to demonstrate, you know, to do our best to sort of show what that project would look like in situ because it's hard, I appreciate it's hard to visualize. Does that help?

Do people gain access to that information or are they already?

It's one of the figures in the draft EIR in the aesthetics chapter, so they could look at it there. And there, I know there's some other vantage points were developed as well along Dublin Canyon Road to visualize the project in place. Yeah.

And so, like you said, the general public doesn't have access

here so there's no way for the general public to be able to see where the ends of the roadway are anyway even if you put stakes down at the end of the roads there again we happy to talk to the applicant about you know if there's a way to put a flag in the ground that would sort of just even position that from off-site locations like crosby crosby you can say it wrong again crosby drive to see that so we can explore those options. Again, visual simulations have been done and that's probably the best way to do it because otherwise you're really just sort of indicating roughly where something is versus what it will look at by the time it's constructed.

I think some people have the impression that most of the housing will be in the depression area, the bowl I'll call it. And other people feel that maybe some of the houses will start pushing up on the ridge line there. So I just don't know how much there's a common understanding of how much it will impact people when they're looking.

Maybe give us a chance to maybe have a conversation with the applicant about what could be done in terms of helping to improve that sort of sense of visual reference for the project. And I think we'll try and do what we can to bring that back as part of public hearing information.

And I'm not quite sure what my ask is either. I need to talk to the applicant and maybe go up there with the applicant and look myself just to see if it seems like it's something that might be helpful to others. But are other commissioners have any other thoughts about that?

I think if you are on Crosby Drive, you will see the houses. You won't see the matter once the houses are built.

Yeah.

So there will be houses visible from that street.

Maybe just to note, it's figure, sorry, Exhibit 3.1-2 is a visual simulation of the project from Crosby Drive.

And that's not something you can show here now, is it, right? It's just something that.

We probably, maybe, give the I.R. on the computer.

Or it might be hard to pull up, because it's such a big document, too.

Yeah, let's see if we can bring it up for you. It might take a few minutes to find the exhibit.

If it's easy, but otherwise we can all look at it. Yeah.

We'll see what we can do here.

Any other discussion or comments from planning commissioners?

Any light impact which need to be considered as part of EIR, like impact of the light, that's all covered.

Light and glare is one of the CEQA thresholds for aesthetics.

Yeah, I think it's a long document I have tried to read and at some point.

You fell asleep.

I fell asleep, so.

It is daunting, yeah.

But I think having it been done by an independent body and the city involvement gives me a lot more confidence that it was not biased. And they're following the rules and

So I'll give. Full-fledged EIR with a lot of study involved in it, yeah. So it sounds like that's probably all the comments you're gonna get from the Planning Commission unless there are other specific questions or.

No, that was helpful, some helpful feedback. It was also very helpful to hear the public comments as well tonight, so thank you for those.

Yeah, and thank you for making yourself available and for Derek making himself available for all the questions and education that people are going to ask for here, too. And so do you think we should look for that simulation, or do you think maybe we should

longer than you have the patience for to bring that image up, but just again, it is for the public, it is in the draft environmental impact report in the aesthetics.

And there's a couple of other visuals in the project description. We noticed that that was sometimes the only way to actually truly visualize what it's going to look at. You know, we've done projects where, you know, projects where on a hill we were trying to determine to try and tell the client This our project is not going to impact your view of x. And there's no way to physically do it. But it's amazing with with the technology. Now, you really can get that's that's the best way to prove what you're actually going to see in the in the in the as an end result.

And speaking of technology, I'm having an issue here. So if I could point to the city's website, you know, we have the air in the city's website, under the short term projects page, and it's Ellen, I think reference the page that it's on in the IRS 153 anytime, page 153. Yeah. Okay.

So.

All right.

So WITH THAT, WE'LL CONCLUDE THE ITEM 5 PUBLIC HEARING ON REVIEW OF THE DRAFT EIR FOR THE HIDDEN CANYON RESIDENCE AND PRESERVE PROJECT. AND SO PEOPLE ARE WELCOME TO GO NOW UNLESS THEY WANT TO STICK AROUND FOR THE items 6-10 which are just discussions about the planning calendar and other miscellaneous items for tonight. Thank you all for attending and thank you for your very well informed input tonight.

Are we discussing the

regular meeting schedule?

Yes.

So yeah, we'll move on to item six here, adoption of planning commission schedule and regular meetings for 2026. Any comments?

No, as noted, this is your adoption of the next year's meeting calendar. We do have meetings in, two meetings a month, with the exception of April, where the first meeting is canceled for the spring break. consistent with the council calendar. There's a recess in August. The city council will also be having a similar recess, so no planning commission meetings are scheduled for August. So you can enjoy a break, hopefully, and have some summer vacation. And then in November, the only item of note is both of the Planning Commission meetings in November, one falls on Veterans Day and the other one is the day before Thanksgiving. So we decided to schedule a special meeting sort of in between the two regular meetings in order to not have a big gap between meetings in November. So a special meeting on November the 18th and then one meeting in December, obviously, because the second meeting is infected by Christmas.

Yeah, one meeting in November, but not on the normal week.

It'll be in the off week, yeah.

so i move to adopt the 2026 planning commission regular meeting schedule as written all right well i assume no comments or concerns about that so looks good thank you um moving on to item seven uh appointment of planning commission chair and vice chair as you know we have a couple of commissioners have a couple of commissioners that aren't here tonight, including maybe one or two that would like to be considered as a chair for next year. Is it reasonable to delay item seven until our next meeting?

Yes, we can delay that until January.

OK. Any concerns among Planning Commission members? Everybody's nodding. OK. So we'll carry over item 7 to the next meeting. And then appointment of subcommittee representation. We don't have everybody here tonight, but it seems like maybe we'd want to make some progress on this. rather than just roll this one to January? What are your?

Yeah, so I have been on bike and ped for a couple of years, or three years, I don't know. What's the term limitation?

So the bicycle ped committee is, sorry, three-year terms, so you've probably been on for three years, Commissioner Jain, with a maximum of two years, two terms, or a six-year total.

So I'm happy to rotate out if someone wants to take that on. It's a fun group. You see a lot of people enthusiast about bicycling and walking and pedestrians.

Are you interested in continuing that role or?

If nobody else wants to take it. I see.

Is there anybody else that has a particular interest about the bike and pedestrian trail committee? If you're interested in continuing, it's yours.

If you want to defer and try to get input from... Let's try again next time if anyone's interested. But I'm happy to continue if there's no interest from anybody else.

And then Heritage Tree, Mr. Wedge, you're on that now and you're happy to continue for another term? And, Commissioner Diego, you're an alternate on that committee, is that right, the tree committee, or?

If you have a vacancy, I'd love to move up to a permanent member.

Yeah, of the tree committee. So currently we have Mr. Mohan is Is that the one you're interested in?

That's the same one. That's the same one.

Is that the one you're interested in, Mr. Jago?

Well, I'm looking at those two.

The one that you're the alternate for now?

Yeah. Well, it says Commissioner Mohan in one vacancy, and then I'm the alternative, and then the other one, Heritage Board of Appeals.

That is the Heritage Board.

i i think they had a mistake because i'm it's only my second year on the heritage so when i spoke to stella she said two years and you're off but then tonight they said three so i think that's where the vacancy came up i just think it was a okay maybe a player you know just uh and i was an alternate first so that may have thrown people off got it

Tree board is two years, two-year term. So maybe you can help us out here with the current status. Yeah, I have a little summary.

So heritage is two-year terms and no consecutive terms. Oh, okay, then go for it. And then BPTC is three-year term.

And so you served two terms already?

You served your two. I served two years. Correct. Yeah, so that's two terms. No, that's one two-year term. Oh, okay, so I can stay on?

No, you can serve one two-year term. Oh, only one two-year term. Yeah, so I'm done.

Right. Correct. Okay, so you should jump up. There you go.

So Commissioner Jago is interested in that and Commissioner Mohan would continue? Is that the presumption that he's?

Now we need an alternate. Yeah, or Commissioner Wedge, you could be the alternate if you're interested in serving in some capacity on that. Sure. On that board. Is that okay? I think that's okay. Yeah. Different role? Yeah. Yeah. You'd be the alternate. Perfect. I'll be there.

Is Commissioner Mohan continuing? He's only been on it one year or does anybody know how long he's been there? Why is he not?

He's only been on one year.

Yeah, he's only served as a regular member since January so his term ends the end of next year. So he has one more year of his term to serve.

HE'S GOT A TWO-YEAR TERM AND HE'S HALFWAY INTO IT NOW.

OKAY.

AND SO COMMISSIONER JAGO IS INTERESTED IN THE OTHER TREE BOARD POSITION AND COMMISSIONER WEDGE IS INTERESTED IN BEING THE ALTERNET. SO IT SOUNDS LIKE WE HAVE THAT ONE FILLED FOR THE TREE BOARD.

Commissioner Mohan continues.

Yeah. Yes. Do we, because he hasn't finished his term yet, do we need any votes on this or we just need general agreement that that's how we're going to move forward?

I think we generally do a motion.

Yeah, we generally do.

Okay.

You might want to wait to see if Commissioner Mohan wants to continue since you're, you know, this is kind of what you guys decided tonight but since it's going to be brought back anyway on the others, you may as well wait to finalize it.

All right, so yeah, it sounds like our proposal is that, assuming Commissioner Mohan wants to continue, Mr. Jago is interested in doing a term on the tree board, and Commissioner Wedge is interested in being the alternate on that tree board. And then for the bicycle and pedestrian committee, Mr. Jain is willing to consider serving another term, but if other people were interested, he would potentially like to end his service on that one, and so we'll continue that one for the next meeting as well. TO SEE IF ANYONE IS INTERESTED. AND SO FOR THE BIKE AND PET COMMITTEE WE NEED ONE PERSON AS A REPRESENTATIVE AND ONE PERSON AS AN ALTERNATE. OKAY. SO THAT'S PROBABLY ABOUT AS MUCH AS WE CAN DO ON THAT ONE.

SO WE'LL BRING BACK THE RECOMMENDATIONS THAT THIS GROUP SUGGESTED IN JANUARY AND HOPEFULLY WE'LL HAVE ALL OF YOU, ALL THE COMMISSION IN ATTENDANCE.

OKAY. Item nine, reports for meetings attended. Mr. Wedge?

Nothing to report. Mr. Jain?

Nothing to report.

Mr. Jago?

Nothing to report.

Nothing to report for me as well. And then item 10, future planning calendar.

So the only item we have teed up other than the items you just continued forward to January is a discussion for the East Pleasanton Policy Framework. So this is really staff coming back based on the City Council and Planning Commission joint study session, the community workshop that we held in October, and then we're also doing some additional analysis to bring some scenarios back for the Planning Commission and then Council to weigh in on. SO WE'RE LOOKING TO DO THAT IN LATE JANUARY, POSSIBLY FEBRUARY FOR THE COMMISSION.

OKAY. GOOD. AND MATTERS INITIATED BY COMMISSION MEMBERS? COMMISSIONER JAGO?

NONE.

Okay. Commissioner Wedge?

None.

Commissioner Jain I don't know if you were thinking about something but we got a pretty lean crew here tonight too so I'm not sure.

So I don't know if there's interest in people present today to have a little social with the planning commission and the staff and we can of course send an email to all the commissioners and staff We could do maybe drinks in the evening at one of the places in downtown. So something simple and optional if there's support from the rest of the Commission. What do you guys think?

I'm in.

I'm in.

I think we talked about Commissioner Jane and I talked about a date which I can't remember now, the 15th?

So we could do 15th, December 15th or we could do some other days. Is there any preferred date for the staff?

Would some of the staff be joining too?

I think both Derek and I were available on the 15th. I'm available. And yeah, we're happy to do that and we can extend that to other planning staff as well like Melinda and other of the planners too. That would be great. See if they're available. I'm available. it's hard to get everybody i will say that from our planning staff even when you offer them drinks so we could even do it earlier would it be

possible to do it sooner?

I think doing something our office closes at 5, starting around 5 if it works for the commission would be maybe optimal.

So I propose because it gets kind of dark already so 5 o'clock. Nothing wrong with a drink at 5 o'clock. you can drink coffee suggest a place where would we like somewhere inside open to suggestions on the place uh this beer baron which is outside or inside what's inside or if any other suggestions beer baron is what would staff suggest i mean

think we've met at beer baron in the past and it's a good location it has um yeah plenty and i think if we go early early it won't be too too busy so um that sounds it's got enough it's got a good inside um space yeah yeah that's a good suggestion

MR. How would we like to do this to inform the people that aren't here tonight?

MS. Staff can send an email out.

MR. Whoever is available to join.

MS. Yeah, exactly. It's an informal invitation to join, and if you can, then stop by and have a seasonal, you know, seasonal gathering. MR. Or drink or whatever. MS. Yeah. Or not. Or snack, you know.

MR. They have some virgin drinks, too.

So, yeah, that would be great. Thank you for initiating that.

Okay.

Any other? Anything else?

No, that would be great. That would be my accomplishment.

Right. You finally got us to commit.

All right. Well, thank you for leading us through the draft EIR tonight. about all of the folks that have interest and concerns about the project so Derek probably going to get some phone calls and spend a certain number of hours educating people on this project.

We'll do our best to give you more than four days to review what will end up being a fairly large packet when this comes back for planning commission consideration because it will be a hefty set of entitlements and background information so we'll try to tee that up as effectively as we can for the Planning Commission to digest all the information.

All right. Well, thank you. And thank you for all your support this year, too. Yeah, thank you. Meeting adjourned.