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More than 300 city employees, company sponsors and Pleasanton residents attended Mayor Karla Brown’s 2023 State of the City event March 29, where she updated the crowd on things like new housing developments and how the city bounced back after the last few pandemic years.
“Last year, we leaned-in and defined a new normal,” Brown said. “We embraced positive changes like parklets and we continued to support outdoor dining throughout the community. We supported businesses as they bounced back, and we got back to full programming as a city for our activities and community events. From my point of view, we came back well-prepared for what’s ahead.”
During the event, which was hosted by the Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce, Brown went through a list of projects that the city has either completed or is scheduled to complete.
One of the first projects that she talked about was the Johnson Drive Economic Development Zone project — otherwise known as the Costco project.
This project will aim to redevelop approximately 40 acres of land fronting Johnson Drive, near Stoneridge Drive and Interstate 680. The goal is to build a commercial corridor — including two new hotels, a new Costco and overall road improvements — that Brown said will generate new tax revenue to support the city.
She said that while the recent rains and storms have delayed Costco’s groundbreaking, the goal is to have it open to the public by early 2024. The hotels are already under construction.
Some of the other big projects Brown went over were the city’s recently adopted 2023-31 Housing Element, which designates sites where housing can be built to meet state-mandated Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) numbers. She also told the audience about the Stoneridge Mall Framework, which aims to gather input from the property owners at the shopping center and the community to redevelop the area with more housing. The property was zoned as one of the largest sites in the Housing Element.
The council had approved construction to begin work on a 360-unit multi-family housing project at the shopping center the week before her address.
The 5-1/2-story, mixed-use apartment complex and parking structure project is expected to break ground in late 2023 and will take about two and a half years to complete.
“We are doing our part, and as proof Pleasanton’s housing growth was in the top 20% over the past 10 years,” Brown said. “With sites distributed throughout the city, it is a plan we can be proud of and a plan we can continue to grow with.”
“Over the past few years, we have all come to recognize that retail spaces are changing –- and the Stoneridge Shopping Center is no exception,” Brown added. “With a shift in how goods are purchased and delivered, a new vision is needed to ensure the mall remains a vibrant trademark of our community.”
Another big item of interest to the Pleasanton community that Brown went over was the work in addressing a solution to the city finding PFAS chemicals, otherwise known as “forever chemicals,” in three city-operated groundwater wells.
She said that as city staff — along with the help of the Zone 7 Water Agency — continues to explore different alternatives to supplying the 20% of water those wells typically produce for residents, the city is asking residents to continue meeting the 15% water conservation threshold that has been in place since the last drought.
Brown added that during a recent trip to Washington, D.C., for a conference of all the mayors in the country, she engaged with federal representatives and agency staff to discuss how best to address PFAS.
Another big highlight of Brown’s speech was regarding the city’s budget.
According to Brown, the city’s economy continues to be financially strong and that the $80 million of property taxes from last year made up 57% of the city’s revenue last year.
She also mentioned that the city saw a surplus of $5.7 million.
But as the city prepares to enter into budget discussions on what projects to fund later this month, Brown said it is important to point out that the city is working on changing how projects will be prioritized through a five-year city-wide strategic plan.
The city recently launched a new strategic planning process that will create a foundation and a focus for our priority-setting process,” Brown said. “The new plan will consider financial and staff resources, infrastructure maintenance and project timelines to provide a continuous approach of planning that will help maintain our momentum and our top priorities.”
One of the projects that Brown highlighted as a future project that she is excited about was the Valley Link rail system. Valley Link would be a hydrogen-fueled rail system with zero carbon emissions that would remove 30,000 cars from the roads every day.
She said that while this project wouldn’t be completed until years down the road, future generations will be able to benefit from the rail system. Brown added that she and the four other Tri-Valley mayors recently lobbied in Sacramento and in Washington, D.C., so the region could receive the funding to complete the design and construction of the project.
On the topic of transportation, Brown also pointed out that the Alameda County Transportation Commission board is working on funding and constructing the missing link for the I-680 HOV lane from San Ramon to Sunol.
She also reported that the Livermore Amador Valley Transit Authority is currently testing their small driverless buses called Shared Autonomous Vehicles. These state-of-the-art electric buses will help improve first- and last-mile connections to BART stations.
As Brown touched on overall statistics such as how Pleasanton is the 11th safest city in California and 50th in the country, how more than 50% of businesses that responded to a survey said they’ve been in the city for over 10 years and how the city is making strides in mental health calls through its Alternative Response Unit.
She wrapped up by pointing out the fun stuff that happened last year, such as the construction of new pickleball courts at Muirwood Community Park and the return of Weekends on Main Street this year. These were just some of the projects that Brown said were ways the city brought businesses, community members and everyone else together.
“This is more than a place where we live,” Brown said during her closing remarks. “We are a community of people who care about creating opportunities so that each of our businesses and 80,000 residents have what they need to proudly call Pleasanton their home.”
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