Pleasanton Officials Seek Transit-Oriented Development

The City of Pleasanton is weighing a large-scale redevelopment of parking lots surrounding the Dublin/Pleasanton BART station into as many as 1,300 homes.

The Pleasanton City Council reviewed early conceptual plans from city staff to begin the process of redeveloping the 14.9-acre site at 5835 and 5859 Owens Drive into a transit-oriented, mixed-use community, the San Francisco Business Times reported. Bay Area Rapid Transit owns 250 acres of developable land in 22 cities across the region; the transit authority believes the land has the potential to hold more than 28,000 units of housing.

The City Council reviewed two options from staffers that could eventually shape what a request for proposals from developers would look like. One option calls for building 870 to 1,088 units in two five-story buildings and two-seven story buildings; the other proposes between 1,047 and 1,309 units in two seven-story buildings and one five-to-eight-story building. The property can be split into three or four parcels, with city officials leaving the door open to future developments like hotels, offices or education space.

The Dublin/Pleasanton BART station was identified as a housing opportunity site as part of its housing element. When the City created that housing plan, it estimated that the site could house up to 555 units. New state legislation incentivizing transit-oriented development, however, has allowed developers to swing bigger on such projects near train stations, bumping up the purported capacity at the Pleasanton station by more than double. Under AB 2923, transit-oriented projects near some hubs in the Bay Area must have a minimum density of 75 units per acre and a minimum height of five stories; of those units, 20 percent must be set aside as affordable housing.

Under its housing element, the City of Pleasanton must plan for 5,965 new units of housing by 2031.

Other BART stations in the region are already becoming the center of new transit-oriented developments. Last year, Oakland-based affordable housing developer East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation broke ground on a 97-unit, seven-story affordable senior housing building at the Lake Merritt BART station; that project is the first phase of a mixed-use development that will ultimately boast more than 550 units.

The North Berkeley and Ashby BART stations are similarly getting new developments. In July, city officials chose Adeline Alliance Partners, a development team including Pacific Companies, SUDA and Resources for Community Development, to build 620 units at the Ashby station. And in El Cerrito, a joint venture between Holliday Development, Related California and Satellite Affordable Housing Associates (SAHA) are planning a 750-unit mixed-income project slated for construction in five phases.

— Chris Malone Méndez