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The Pleasanton City Council will be voting on giving the final green light to demolish the Harvest Valley Christian Church and its affiliated daycare on Hopyard Road in order to construct a multi-family housing project during its meeting Tuesday.
The council will be reviewing the city Planning Commission’s decision regarding the project and will also decide whether to move forward with the developer’s original design — which includes 57 condominium-style units — or to side with the staff recommendation of approving an alternative design of 55 units along with an Affordable Housing Agreement for that second option.
“City staff has been in discussion with the applicant about the affordable housing for the 55-unit alternative, with the city’s interest in the eight units being priced for sale to low-income (80% average median income) households and housing providers,” staff wrote in the agenda report. “There have been discussions about the units being sold to low-income households and housing providers, with the goal for the applicant to receive $375,000 per unit, but the sales price and restrictions would be tied to a low-income household level with the cost difference paid by the city using affordable housing funds to provide deeper affordability to the low-income level.”
On March 13, the Planning Commission approved both the original and the alternative project designs after finding both to be consistent with the city’s objective standards and the requirements of the state’s housing density bonus law, according to the report.
The project, which would be located at 3200 Hopyard Road and consist of nine three-story residential buildings, first came to the commission on Feb. 28 but the commission pushed its final vote until March 13 after hearing dozens of residents who live near the proposed project express concerns about the negative impacts the development would have on their quality of life.
At first, the project was going to build 57 multi-family units made up of 48 townhomes and nine apartments. Nine one-bedroom units in the originally proposed development would be deed-restricted to lower-income households in order to meet the city’s inclusionary zoning requirements and to qualify for waivers and concessions pursuant to the state housing density bonus law.
However the project applicant — Catalyst Development Partners LLC — proposed the alternative design to construct 55 units made up of 47 townhome-style units and eight one-bedroom apartment units in order to “address neighbors’ concerns.”
On March 19, the council requested a review of the Planning Commission’s decision, which is what will be presented at Tuesday’s meeting, but then on March 21 the city’s Housing Commission did not recommend approval of the proposed Affordable Housing Agreement for the first 57-unit option that includes the nine units designated for affordable housing.
The Housing Commission instead recommended approval of the proposed housing agreement for the 55-unit option where the developer proposed that the “eight one-bedroom units are to be affordable for-sale to moderate-income (120% average median income) households and housing providers, plus a $77,228 payment.”
The Housing Commission also asked staff to work with the developer to consider options for increased affordability.
Given the City Council’s request to review the project, the project review and the required approval of the AHA are being brought together for the City Council’s consideration.
The City Council meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Tuesday (April 16). The full agenda can be accessed here.
In other business:
* The Pleasanton Police Department will be presenting its bi-annual update to the council on crime trends, personnel matters and PPD programs like the Student Resource Officer and Alternative Response Unit.
This presentation takes place twice a year — with Tuesday’s presentation focusing mainly on last year’s numbers and highlights.
According to the staff report, one of the main issues that will come out during Tuesday’s presentation is how the average emergency response time in 2023 was five minutes and 19 seconds while the response time goal for emergencies established in the city’s General Plan is four minutes.
For non-emergencies, the average response time last year was 24 minutes and 57 seconds, the time goal is 20 minutes.
Staff also realized, while compiling data for this report, that the response times for past reports included partial data which inaccurately reflected a lower emergency response time of four minutes, 19 seconds for 2022 and 2021.
“To lower response times, the department implemented new protocols to ensure higher priority calls were dispatched more promptly,” according to the staff report.
Because of that, the response times for January were four minutes and 53 seconds for emergency calls and 19 minutes, 52 seconds for non-emergencies.
Crime is going to be another big topic in Tuesday’s presentation to the council as staff will go over how crime has significantly gone up in several areas.
According to the staff report, in 2023 violent crime increased by 12% as well as rape and robbery cases. The increase in reported rape cases is being attributed to an increase in cases of sexual assault involving minors, according to staff.
While aggravated assaults did go down by 47%, the report states that property crime, burglaries and auto theft cases have all gone up.
“While the increase is concerning, Pleasanton is facing similar property crime trends as other cities in the region,” the staff report states. “The department is actively addressing this rise in property crimes through directed patrols and the deployment of vehicles that have proven to act as a deterrent.”
Arrests last year were similar to the number in 2022 but one notable difference is the increase in juvenile arrests, which increased from 23 in 2022 to 72 last year. One thing that has contributed to that has been the number of juvenile arrests at the Stoneridge Mall, which according to the report, has increased five fold from nine in 2022 to 43 in 2023.
One important note according to staff is that similar to overall arrests, 75% of the juveniles who were arrested are not Pleasanton residents.
Traffic collisions also increased by 25% last year, which is attributed to the increase of vehicles on the roads and to the reassignment of the traffic unit to support patrol staffing needs. The report states staff anticipate the traffic unit will be partially reinstated by this summer.
On the topic of personnel matters, the report states that PPD conducted two internal investigations last year that resulted in “sustained findings of policy violations.”
The report also touched on staffing issues which continue to be the department’s biggest challenge. According to staff, there are currently eight vacant sworn positions and four vacant professional staff positions.
There are also 10 sworn positions affected by employees on leave, five officers in the training program and five officers in the police academy.
“These combined vacancies and officers in training equal 28% of the total sworn positions or a deployable strength of 72%,” according to the staff report. “It is anticipated the five officers in training will be on solo patrol by June 2024, increasing the deployable strength to 78%. The five officers in the academy will likely graduate between May and December 2024 and then start their 16-week training program.”
* The council will be looking to adopt a resolution certifying an exception to a 180-day waiting period in order to appoint Newark Chief of Police Gina Anderson as Pleasanton’s interim chief of police.
If approved by the council, the resolution will allow Anderson to take over for outgoing Police Chief David Swing starting May 3. According to the staff report, Anderson will serve under a limited-duration assignment and will be paid about $144 an hour while the city undergoes a recruitment and selection process to find Swing’s permanent replacement.
