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The Pleasanton Planning Commission is set Wednesday to consider a number of staff recommendations regarding the Barone’s Restaurant redevelopment plans that would produce 14 new detached homes, a new commercial building with a plaza and parking.
According to city associate planner Natalie Amos’ staff report, the commission will be reviewing zoning specifics, plans to demolish certain structures, and a vesting tentative tract map and development plan to redevelop the once-popular restaurant and its surroundings.
“The proposed development is well-designed, would preserve an existing home on-site, provide additional commercial square footage with a public plaza and parking lot and would be compatible with other residential and commercial uses in the downtown,” Amos stated in her report.
Barone’s Restaurant first shuttered its doors in December 2022 due to various reasons like the pandemic. It reopened in August 2023 as a pared down concept with appetizers, finger foods, cocktails and entertainment three nights a week, as well as private event rentals, before shutting down for good last weekend.
City staff have been working with the applicant for the project — Robson Homes LLC, a home developer based in San Jose — for years to revise the different proposals, Amos said. The Barone family, who own the land, originally announced their intent to shut down early in 2021 and even tried to propose plans to redevelop the downtown site into residential housing.
Back in March 2021, the Planning Commission reviewed the project as part of a work session where the developer presented two options for the project site.
The first option was an all-residential development proposal for 10 detached, two-story single-family homes and seven second-story accessory dwelling units above detached garages. The second option was a mixed-use development with single-family and second-story accessory dwelling units along with a two-story office building.
During those early discussions, Amos said the City Council “noted a residential-only project is not desirable and stated a redevelopment application should try and maintain the existing amount of commercial square footage that exists on the site.”
Staff also had concerns about site layout, commercial square footage, parking and other elements of the project, Amos said.
“The Planning Commission was not supportive of an all-residential project and directed the applicant to return with a mixed-use project that maintained the existing amount of commercial square-footage currently on-site and make every feasible effort to address the public comments received,” Amos said.
That brings us to Wednesday’s commission meeting where staff will be recommending that the commission approve several items to move forward with the new project that will replace the restaurant.
According to Amos, the project will aim to rezone the approximately 2.3-acre project site in order to retain the two-story single-family home and construct an approximately 1,360-square-foot two-story addition to the north side of the home. The project will also demolish all remaining structures.
The goal of this project is to construct 14 new detached two-and-a-half-story, single-family homes; two single-story retail or commercial buildings with a plaza and a 13-stall parking lot. The two commercial buildings would total approximately 3,125 square feet in area combined and the plaza would be about 1,568 square feet.
Other related site improvements on the combined 2.3 acres across 475 and 493 St. John St. are also included in the plan.
In addition, the developer wants to construct an approximately 676-square-foot, single-story detached accessory dwelling unit for the existing single-family home, according to Amos.
A new private street would also be constructed to provide 10 off-site parking spaces and the commercial lot will have the 13 stall parking lots but apart from that, the homes themselves will be constructed with two-car garages.
The architecture of the new single-family homes, Amos said, will be designed to “include architectural features found in other existing buildings along St. John Street and in downtown”.
“Most notably, the applicant is proposing traditional architecture – e.g., entry porches, Juliet balconies on some units, large, recessed windows with grids on the front and back elevations, brick veneer and stucco materials and composition hip roofs,” Amos said.
The Planning Commission meeting is set to start at 7 p.m. Wednesday (Oct. 23) in the council chambers at 200 Old Bernal Ave. Read the full agenda here.
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