PLEASANTON — Traffic and future congestion is one key issue discussed by the three candidates running for two spots on the Pleasanton City Council.
In their first forum without the two mayoral candidates, incumbents Cindy McGovern and Matt Sullivan and newcomer Jerry Pentin discussed a variety of issues at a live event hosted by Tri-Valley Community Television on Wednesday.
The candidates also discussed the two ballot measures about city hillsides, the Staples Ranch development, the city's impending buildout and the local economy in an hour-long session moderated by Carolyn Siegfried.
With Pleasanton surrounded by interstates 580 and 680 and Highway 84 as well as having a BART station and a future station planned within its limits, the candidates talked about traffic being a bear at times in the city.
All three agreed the problem needs regional help to solve, as well a few changes within the city — such as traffic light synchronization.
"I have said that this race is not necessarily ridges but roads," said Pentin, referring the two items on the ballot about the city's ridgelines and hillsides. Traffic "impacts everything and not just in Pleasanton but regionally."
The citizens' initiative PP and the City Council-backed initiative QQ involving the hillsides on the city's southeast side were also discussed.
McGovern and Sullivan were the two dissenting votes in a 3-2 decision by the council to place Measure AdvertisementQQ on the ballot in response to the citizen's initiative, Measure PP.
Both McGovern and Sullivan support PP while Pentin supports QQ.
PP aims to prevent grading on the city's hillsides that possess a slope of 25 percent or greater or within 100 vertical feet of a ridgeline.
The initiative was placed on the ballot after 5,000 citizens signed a petition regarding concerns about the Oak Grove project, a 51-lot custom home subdivision in the southeast hills.
Urged by trail and open space activists, QQ was placed on the ballot by a council vote of 3-2 in response to PP. QQ aims to establish a committee to develop an ordinance to protect the city's hillside.
"I was fully supportive of the Oak Grove project because we were able to get a compromise," Sullivan said talking about the project when it first came to the council. "The problem was the larger community didn't share that vision, and they wanted to vote on it."
Sullivan said he doesn't support council-backed ballot measure QQ because it was meant to confuse and to defeat the citizens' initiative.
In regard to the Staples Ranch project on the city's east side, all three agreed the project was vital to the city.
A concern about Staples Ranch came up when Alameda County's Local Agency Formation Commission said it may not approve Staples Ranch without a Stoneridge Drive extension.
McGovern said that extending Stoneridge Drive, which would run parallel to the freeway, without improvements to Highway 84 or Interstate 580 would be like adding four more lanes to the freeway.
"If they go through with that plan today, cut-through traffic (in the city) would increase by 50 percent," said McGovern. "But if you wait for improvements, then that number jumps to 10 percent."
The forum will be shown nine more times on TV29 in Pleasanton, starting Monday and running through Nov. 1. For times and dates visit www.tv30.org.
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