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Pleasanton is at a crossroads on the way it will strategy future development. It might both be a frontrunner in offering much-needed reasonably priced housing, or it could possibly assist launch a misguided authorized battle of resistance.
It’s time for metropolis leaders to get with this system. Pleasanton, with its wealth of workplace house on the crossroads of two interstate freeways and with two BART stations, supplies a great locale for transit-oriented residential growth.
Voters who need Pleasanton to assist deal with the area’s housing disaster ought to elect Dean Wallace in District 1 and Jamie Yee in District 3. They're the candidates who can lead the town’s efforts to satisfy new state mandates for house development.
Their opponents, Planning Commissioner Jeff Nibert and incumbent Councilwoman Julie Testa, are hellbent on the town becoming a member of different municipalities in a courtroom struggle difficult the state mandates. But, they have been stunningly ignorant concerning the metropolis’s final expensive authorized battle to cease growth.
That case concerned a authorized problem to the town’s housing cap that had resulted within the metropolis failing to supply ample housing. Nibert and Testa individually mentioned in interviews with us that the town gained that courtroom case; truly, it bought its clock cleaned in a 2010 courtroom ruling and the struggle value the metropolis $3.9 million.
Solely after we offered them the historical past did Nibert and Testa again away from their absurd claims. That is what occurs when politicians unfold misinformation with out bothering to do their analysis.
There’s no query that the there are issues with how the state has been calculating required housing for cities throughout the state. After a report from the California auditor earlier this yr, the state company overseeing housing allocations has agreed to make adjustments. In the meantime, a state Courtroom of Attraction has dominated that courts don’t have authority to intervene in disputes over housing allocations.
The underside line is that the basic coverage push from Sacramento for communities to assist resolve the housing disaster isn't going to vary — nor ought to it.
Attempting to swim in opposition to that political present wouldn't solely fail, however it could even be misguided. And it could drain metropolis assets and time that may be higher spent confronting different key points — most notably the intense drawback of contaminated wells that present a part of the town’s water.
Discovering an answer to that drawback ought to be metropolis leaders’ prime precedence. The answer may simply value tens of hundreds of thousands of dollars. That is no time for the town, which has traditionally been fiscally cautious, to, because the council majority appears ready to do, spend $2 million on a brand new skate park, or have interaction in a expensive and ill-advised authorized battle with the state over housing mandates.
The Nov. 8 election supplies a possibility for a wanted change in route. Mayor Karla Brown faces no opposition in her reelection. However Pleasanton’s swap of council elections from citywide at-large to choice by district begins with two aggressive races this yr and can be accomplished with choices for the opposite two seats in 2024.
If Wallace and Yee win this yr, it could shift the council from the present 3-2 slow-growth majority to at least one trying to meet the state targets. That might be refreshing.
District 1 – Dean Wallace
Wallace is the district director for Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland. For almost 20 years he has executed political work or been a district aide for Democratic members of Congress or the state Legislature. Now he’s operating for workplace for the primary time — and he has executed his homework.
He understands the town’s funds, the necessity to present housing, the seriousness of the town’s water drawback and the folly of spending hundreds of thousands on a brand new skate park. And, not like Nibert, he acknowledges that litigating in opposition to the state’s housing necessities can be counterproductive.
There isn't any incumbent operating in District 1 — which covers the northwest part of the town alongside Interstate 580 — as a result of Councilwoman Kathy Narum has reached her two-term most.
District 3 – Jamie Yee
Yee served three phrases on the Pleasanton College Board, from 2008-20, is a member of the town’s Civic Arts Fee and has labored for the Alameda County Well being Care Providers Company for 15 years largely in neighborhood relations and program administration posts.
Whereas she expresses concern about cities shedding native management on housing planning, she says these are coverage points to be labored out by means of representatives within the Legislature, not the courts. She’s proper. Like Wallace, she thinks the skate park expenditure is unwise, particularly throughout this time of economic uncertainty and with the town going through the expensive water drawback that have to be addressed.
District 3 straddles Interstate 680 within the southern part of the town. Along with Testa, the incumbent, there’s a 3rd candidate within the race, Joel Liu, an electrical engineer who serves on the town’s Committee on Vitality and the Setting. His positions are much like Yee’s, however he doesn’t have her elective-office expertise.