City Council to Consider Rebuttal Arguments to General Plan Revisions

City Council tonight will consider allowing rebuttal arguments for the amended General Plan 2030 to go on the November ballot.

Come election day, San Ramon residents will choose whether to accept the revised planning document, a roadmap for the city's future growth. Part of the document's update is a provision to pull 1,600 acres in the Tassajara Valley into the city's urban growth boundary.

Council members voted unanimously in favor of putting the general plan changes on the Nov. 2 ballot. Environmental groups asked the city to allow rebuttal arguments.

Also on the agenda

• City Council will consider entering into a contract with lobbyists who will push for federal grants to widen nearby freeways and to fix up foreclosed homes in the region. If approved, the contract would split the $96,000 price of the firm Jordan & Associates for Federal Governmental Affairs Services five ways, with San Ramon paying $20,000 for the year and four other Tri-Valley cities paying the rest. One of the goals in hiring the lobbyists is to get money to widen Interstate 680 to ease traffic congestion.

• Council will decide whether to accept a proposal to spend up to $163,000 for new traffic signals along Crow Canyon and Bollinger Canyon roads. Most of the project – some $1.2 million worth – is covered by state and federal grants and the remainder would come from the city's transportation fund.
• The city expects to spend $90,000 over the next two years to pay for telephone maintenance and the cost of setting up the pone network at the new police station on Crow Canyon Road. Staff is asking council members to OK the contract.
• Council will consider whether to spend $77,000 to replace a pickup and a flatbed truck with alternative fuel vehicles.
• To read the agenda in its entirety, click here.