RES 01063 - Laserfiche WebLink

Mr. Brin Swift May 16, 2001 Pap3ofll Out p~ is a not ago~l tesiden .t~al location I~x:ause it is a small site completely surrounded by commercial uses and because it is located on a high traffic thoroughfare. Th~ site.has commercial uses all on sides of the property, and these uses continue in all directions for several blocks. Residential on this site would be like a small island in a sea of Commercial uses, and as a result, it would not have anything near a residential character or environment. Its occupants would be located in a sterile, isolated enviromnent away from other residential neighbors, and they would not enjoy living at ~ a~ examples in Pleasanton of res~ Us~S aa'ess the street from commercial usmt. These projects, however, ate extr~y lar~ ones of 20-50 acres (or la~ger) with hundreds to thousands of realdential units which together make up their own residantial neighborhood. This type of scale is necessary to create a residontial environment including parks, public open space, and other amenities such as pools, tennis courts, rec~ rooms, and other common areas. In addition to their la~c scale, these residential areas are physically separated from the commercial uses by streets, creeks, or lar~ canals, and some of these residential areas arc distinctly divided and "protected'* from thc commercial uses by streets with solid walls on aH sides. In conttust to the above, our property is only 2.67 acros, and it is located on a visible comer at thc intersection of two busy streets. The other two sides of the property are not on streets, but am joint property lines encumbered with common drive isle easements serving the adjacent commercial uses. The site is too small, too visible, and encumbered with commercial easements to create a suitable residential environment. Erecting solid walls on the Hopyard and Gibraltar frontages would not likely be acceptable to anyone, and solid walls could not be erected on the other prupeny lines because of the common drive isle easements. These easements would also make it impossible to create landscape buffers from the adjoining commercial uses without making the rest of thc site unusable. Tbe setback requirements along the streets also make it virtually impossible to create the public open space areas and other amenities (such as a pool) that are required by Pleasanton for projects with medium to high densities. Given these site and location nttributes, a residential project would not bc successful from both a planning and occupant perspective. Our properly is also located on one of Pleasanton's busiest streets, The north part of Ho~yatd Road is especially busy as it fesds into Hacienda Business Park and the business developments on the west side of Hupyard and north side of Stoneridgc. There would be serious safety, noise, and air pollution issues with locating a residential project on thc corner of Hupyard and Gibraltar. To reach the nearest elementary school, children 5 to 10 yenrs old would have to cross Hupyard Road to attend school. The Planning Depa~h.ent does not like to create this type of situation, and we agree that it is unsafe and