San Ramon council makes appointments to planning, parks commissions

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San Ramon City Hall at 7000 Bollinger Canyon Dr. (Photo courtesy City of San Ramon)

The San Ramon City Council appointed new and returning members to its planning and parks commissions during recent back-to-back special meetings, with one seat on the Planning Commission still up for grabs.

The council voted unanimously to appoint Kyle Levy, Partha Mitra, Will Doerlich, and Vasanth Shetty to four open seats on the Parks and Community Services Commission from a pool of 10 candidates following interviews on June 25. Then, council members reappointed Gary Alpert to his seat on the Planning Commission and appointed Santhosh Kanjula to a first term on the commission following interviews June 26.

With a total of three Planning Commission seats up for grabs – and four out of 11 applicants absent from interviews June 26 – the council voted to appoint Alpert and Kanjula while leaving one seat unfilled that evening and to reopen the application and interview process.

Levy, who also served on the Yes on Measure N campaign during last year’s election, has been on the parks commission since 2023. Shetty – who ran for the District 2 City Council seat last year in a tight race that ultimately came out in favor of Robert Jweinat – is serving on the commission for his first time, having previously served on the city’s Economic Development Committee.

It is Alpert’s fourth term on the Planning Commission, where he went on to be selected as its chair during the body’s yearly rotation July 1. That meeting – the first for Kanjula – also served as a farewell to outgoing commissioner Eric Wallis after 15 years in his seat.

“The hardest part I think you will find in the next four years, probably starting immediately, is how we meet our goals and mandates from our friends up in Sacramento to develop housing whereas at the same time maintaining a commercial base in San Ramon that enables us to pay for the parks, pay for the streets, and the other things that make San Ramon a place people want to move to and are willing to pay the prices they have to in order to live here,” Wallis told the commission July 1. “That is in large part a land-use decision, and that is why you are here.”

Wallis added that while the City Council is often the “final arbiter” of decisions that come through the Planning Commission, it is dependent on the Planning Commission to analyze and make decisions on land-use matters.

Alpert took the reins of the commission from Jean Kuznik that evening, who has served as chair over the past year.

“I will do my best to keep our meetings running and have as much fun and do as good a job as Ms. Kuznik has done the past year,” Alpert said.

First-term commissioner Betty Avila – a former Danville planner – was selected as vice chair on the Planning Commission.