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Traffic, transportation and housing dominated the discussion by the five area mayors at last week’s 2017 Tri-Valley Mayors’ Summit, held at the Shannon Community Center in Dublin.
The summit, moderated by local Assemblywoman Catharine Baker (R-San Ramon), featured mayors Jerry Thorne of Pleasanton; Renee Morgan, Danville; David Haubert, Dublin; John Marchand, Livermore; and Bill Clarkson, San Ramon.
Their discussion topic was “Collaborating to improve the Tri-Valley.”
Breaking news out of the discussion included plans to extend Dublin Boulevard to North Canyon Parkway in Livermore, adding more license plate readers in police cars to quickly identify stolen cars, empowering police volunteers to help apprehend gangs and drug addicts in Livermore and adding a Labrador Retriever as the mascot at Livermore’s just-opened Lawrence Elementary School, giving school sports teams the nickname of the “Lawrence Labs.”
Thorne led off the luncheon panel’s discussion.
“We’re looking for the best way to move forward in a changing economy,” he said. “The internet is now one of our biggest retail competitors. Housing stock is at an all-time low and our housing prices are at an all-time high. Traffic congestion is one of the biggest challenges that we deal with in the entire Bay Area.”
“We’re trying to deal with all that while at the same time working to retain what we all cherish, which is our small-town environments,” he added.
The four other mayors agreed, with Marchand saying that Livermore is widening streets and some frontage roads to better accommodate cut-through traffic and local drivers “because the freeways just aren’t working.”
Widening work is already underway on Jack London Boulevard to Isabel Road and Stoneridge Drive into Pleasanton, Marchand said. Connecting North Canyon Parkway to an extended Dublin Boulevard will give motorists major arterial bypasses on both the north and south side of a congested Interstate 580.
Baker urged the mayors to keep pushing for extending BART to Livermore, which could take thousands of commuting motorists off the freeway.
In addition, the widening of Highway 84 is due for completion to West Ruby Hill Drive next year, which will provide at least two lanes in each direction to I-580.
“We’re now working on plans to finish the widening project to I-680,” Thorne said. “That’s a $244 million project and, right now, we’re about $82 million short of the funding needs.”
A major push is also underway in Pleasanton to add more designated bicycle lanes on major thoroughfares, including on West Las Positas Boulevard and at the Stanley Boulevard and Bernal-Valley avenues intersection. Thorne said his city’s traffic engineers are also studying ways to widen Foothill Road enough to accommodate a safe bike pathway.
Danville’s Morgan said that despite the town’s abundance of off-street parking lots, motorists continue to clog Hartz Avenue and other downtown streets.
“They’ll drive around until they find a spot directly in front of the business they’re going to,” she said.
Still, Danville has made progress in helping commuters, having expanded its park-and-ride lot from 230 spaces to 346 and broke ground on the new Rose Street municipal parking lot in downtown.
Morgan said Danville recently allocated $1.2 million toward enabling the addition of 200 more parking spaces at San Ramon Valley High School, where “parking has been bursting at the seams.”
Despite Assemblywoman Baker’s warning of possible new state requirements for more housing to meet California’s shortfall, the mayors said their communities are meeting some of that demand.
San Ramon has built almost 11,000 new homes, primarily in the Dougherty Valley, in recent years, including about 25% priced to meet workforce needs and for moderate income buyers. Another 500 affordable single-story homes are being built for seniors, giving them a chance to stay in their community after they retire, Clarkson said.
Valor Crossing, a 66-unit affordable housing development geared toward veterans and seniors, opened last month in Dublin, near shopping and the western BART station. The development, utilizing $6.4 million from the city’s affordable housing fund, is available to those earning between 30%-60% of the local median income.
Haubert said 25 homeless veterans who moved in didn’t even have a bed. City staff and the local Rotary Club members found beds, tables, utensils and more.
“Every veteran there now has a full place to live,” Haubert said.
Thorne said there were 912 applications for the first 47 units at Pleasanton’s new Kottinger Gardens, a 131-unit apartment complex just being completed for low-income seniors. It replaces a 1960s-era 50-unit complex, that was torn down. Next, work will begin on rebuilding the old Pleasanton Gardens site to provide an additional 54 affordable apartment homes, where today there are 40.
Nearly 2,000 new high-density apartment units also are under construction or have recently been completed in Pleasanton. Most are the result of a state mandate that required the city to provide more workforce and affordable housing.
“Unfortunately, not all of those (apartments) were of our own choosing,” Thorne told the luncheon crowd.
Morgan said Danville faced a similar situation, allowing the construction of a 150- unit complex that is “not cosmetically what Danville is all about,” because of a state housing mandate.
“The fact is that we are almost built out in Danville,” she said. “It’s not because of a ‘not in my backyard’ mentality, which some residents have, but it’s because there’s no backyard left in Danville.”
The Tri-Valley Mayors’ Summit, attended by 300 regional business leaders, city staff and policy makers, was sponsored by the Dublin Chamber of Commerce. The event was videotaped by Tri-Valley Community Television TV30.
The program is being broadcast on TV30 on Tuesdays at 6 p.m., Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays at 9 p.m., Saturdays at 2 p.m. and Sundays at 11:30 a.m. It can also be seen on TV29 on Mondays at 10 a.m., Thursdays at 3 p.m. and Sundays at 9:30 p.m. or online at www.tv30.org.
Great insight into the issues and actions our local leaders are taking. Affordable housing and traffic are two big problems that aren’t going away anytime soon, but improvements can be made. Connecting Livermore to Dublin on the north side of 680 and extending Bart are really good solutions. As a Veteran, it is always nice to see that community taken care of. The Tri-Valley is a great place to live and work, so thank you all for your efforts.