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Commissioner O'Connor stated that if the developer took five units and made Building A all four-story, the developer could take those five units from the rear building which has seven units above two-stories tall. Ms. Stern explained that there is a restriction related to the neighbor on the west side where the Design Guidelines talks about stepping back some of the stories on that side. She added that it is potentially possible to relocate some of those three stories to get more two stories in the back. Brian Dolan stated that staff will look into that to address Commissioner O'Connor's concern to try and help the neighbors in the rear. He noted that staff has two concerns: (1) the reference made by Ms. Stern regarding the commercial neighbor next door, who was very pro-active during the rezoning and attended a lot of meetings and made sure that the restrictions be built into the standards for the specific site. (2)This is a more general concern that if the front is loaded with four stories, that has a certain presentation to the street that would be of concern if the entire frontage was four stories. He reiterated that staff will definitely look at this and see if there is a better balance. Commissioner Allen inquired if there is a possibility of doing any underground-type parking to reduce the height of the buildings. She indicated that she is not sure if there are any creative things that have been done in other developments that might be possible here. Ms. Stern replied that underground parking is usually an economic question in terms of being able to make that pencil out. She added that so far, there is no development that has gone into Pleasanton that has been able to achieve that THE PUBLIC HEARING WAS OPENED. Kevin Ebrahimi, Vice-President of Development, Summerhill Apartment Communities, and Applicant, stated that Summerhill Apartment Communities is a privately-owned company headquartered out of San Ramon, under the Summerhill Housing Group that has been building apartments and for-sale housing in the Bay Area since 1976. He indicated that Su mmerhill is somewhat familiar with Pleasanton and its requirements, having built two for-sale communities in Pleasanton in the past ten years, the first being Nolan Farms off of Rose Avenue in 2001, and Sycamore Heights off of Sycamore Creek Way in 2005. He thanked staff, particularly Ms. Stern and Ms. Soo, who have been very helpful in coordinating and helping them put the application together to meet all the guidelines and to understand what the community is looking for. Mr. Ebrahimi stated that staff has covered the project well in its presentation and that he just wanted to outline some of the reasoning why the site was developed in the way it is being presented to the Commission tonight. He indicated that the proposed community fronts West Las Positas Boulevard, with existing commercial buildings to the east and west, and existing residential communities to the south. He noted that due to the location of the Arroyo, the site layout allows only a minimum distance of 244 feet from EXCERPT: PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES, September 11, 2013 Page 3 of 24