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New apartment complex planned for West Las Positas Boulevard
Affordable housing structure would have 4 stories, 168 units

by Jeb Bing

Another in a series of developers interested in building affordable high density apartment complexes in Pleasanton had a favorable reception from the city's Planning Commission last week in its bid to build a 168-unit, three- and four-story structure on West Las Positas Boulevard near Stoneridge Drive.

Mike Serpa, a consultant with St. Anton Partners, said the Sacramento developer is seeking a permit to build the apartment complex on a 5.6-acre site at 5729 West Las Positas, property that was first developed in 1983 for Hewlett-Packard. The site is a mile from the West Pleasanton BART station and is next to a two-story office building used by the ValleyCare Health System.

It is one of nine sites included earlier this year when the City Council rezoned 73 acres in various parts of the city to accommodate high-density housing following the settlement of a law suit by Urban Habitat, an Oakland-based affordable housing coalition.

The apartment complex would include three residential buildings with a clubhouse, leasing office, swimming pool and even open space for a community vegetable garden. Two U-shaped buildings would be three stories tall with 38 apartment units in each and would front on Las Positas, with a four-story, 115,000 square-foot building to the rear, overlooking Tassajara Creek and containing 39 units.

Serpa said the residential development would accommodate mixed-income groups distributed throughout the complex.

Access to the apartments would be off West Las Positas with 268 parking spaces to be provided for tenants and guests.

But the chairman of the nearby Verona Homes apartment complex notified the Planning Commission that his group opposes the "luxury, multifamily community" planned by St. Anton Partners.

"Most of us in the Verona complex do not want it to happen," Robert Plemmons, chairman of the Verona Home Owners Association, stated in a Nov. 5 letter to Associate Planning Director Rosalind Rondash. "When we purchased our homes, we understood (the property) would always be zoned commercial. We understand the owner can do what they want to the property, but we do not have to like it or welcome it."

The Planning Commission, meeting in a workshop format, took no action on the St. Anton Partners plan, which is expected to be heard by the commission officially in December.

Serpa said that if the plan gains the approval of both the Planning Commission and then later the City Council, construction could begin next spring.