It's time for the evening edition....
Let's talk about the City of Pleasanton!
Over the last 50 years, Pleasanton has evolved from a small, agricultural town into a bedroom suburb, and more recently into a competitive employment center in the Bay Area region. At each phase of its economic cycle, Pleasanton took strategic steps to ensure that growth and development were managed carefully to maintain the City’s high quality of life. Pleasanton’s location, providing easy access to the Silicon Valley and San Francisco markets, has been a critical factor in its appeal as a residential and business address. The construction of the I-580 and I-680 highways in the 1960s was transformative, making Pleasanton and the rest of the Tri-Valley much more accessible and attractive for new housing development.
Pleasanton became an employment center in the 1980s, when the City voted to approve the development of Hacienda, the Tri-Valley’s first large business park, located at the I-580 and I-680 interchange. In addition to the 860-acre Hacienda, Pleasanton also saw the development of Stoneridge Shopping Center and other commercial development in the 1980s. By the early 1990s, Pleasanton had truly become a mixed community, with a ratio of one job to every employed resident. Over the 1990s and 2000s, the City continued to grow its employment base, leveraging the enhanced access provided by the addition of BART service, which better connected Pleasanton’s residents and workers to the regional transit system. While Pleasanton experienced rapid job growth, the City focused on maintaining the high quality of its neighborhoods, facilities, schools, and municipal services. Today, Pleasanton is an important employment area, with more than two jobs for every employed resident.
Downtown Pleasanton is considered to be the heart of the City due to its central location, historic character, and attraction as a place for shopping, dining, and entertainment. The downtown branches out from the Main Street commercial area in a typical grid street pattern encompassing office and service uses, the Civic Center, and residential neighborhoods. Downtown Pleasanton consists of 60 city blocks and features a mix of land uses. Retail, service, and office commercial buildings are situated along Main Street, First Street, and several side streets between Bernal Avenue and Stanley Boulevard.
Office uses are found primarily along the east side of Peters Avenue, west side of First Street, and north side of Old Bernal Avenue. Housing is located mostly west of Peters Avenue, east of First Street, and north of Ray Street. The existing pattern of uses establishes a clear edge which separates commercial from residential use. However, there is a tradition of mixed use within the commercial area of the downtown.
Over the last ten years, smaller commercial buildings with floor area ratios (FAR’s) of generally less than 50% have been replaced with two-story, mixed-use buildings with FAR’s of 50 to 75%. Some conversion of uses is also taking place, typically with small single-family homes in commercial areas being replaced with offices. New restaurants and specialty retail businesses are replacing some of the older, more local-serving stores as leases expire. Older single-family homes are also gradually being replaced by or supplemented with multi-family structures or remodeled, larger single-family homes in the residential neighborhoods.
The size of the downtown as a commercial center, both in terms of the number of businesses and floor area, is similar to that of a small regional center and is surrounded by retail, office, and restaurant space.