Pleasanton council directs staff to draft an early-review policy for rezones and general-plan amendments

The City Council voted Feb. 3 to ask staff to draft a policy that creates an early-review, regularized intake and workshop process for discretionary rezoning and general-plan amendment requests.

Community Development Director Alan Clark told council staff have seen an increase in requests from property owners and developers seeking rezoning to change land use — often office-to-residential conversions driven by high office vacancies. Clark said Pleasanton currently lacks a formal front-end process to give applicants clarity about whether a rezone request has a viable path to council authorization and that processing such legislative requests requires substantial staff time. Staff recommended a standardized set of preliminary submittal materials (conceptual site plan, project narrative and targeted technical studies as warranted), an assessment of staff capacity, and a council workshop intake cadence (staff suggested twice a year) where council would authorize whether an application can proceed to full review.

Council members asked whether the city could decline to allocate staff resources for particular submittals (staff said yes — applicants may still submit, but staff capacity and council authorization would determine processing priority), how projects would affect the city’s certified housing-element inventory, what level of technical documentation should be required up front, and whether community benefits or inclusionary requirements could be required as part of discretionary approvals. Staff said the policy would be drafted to address those questions, include fee recovery for staff time, and return to council with a proposed fee schedule.

Council approved the motion unanimously. Staff will draft the policy, propose a fee schedule to offset processing costs, and return for council consideration.