Two Delapidated Senior Housing Structures Will be Torn Down, Replaced.

Finally, this discussion has been going on for eight years or longer. The city signed an agreement that will replace Pleasanton Gardens and Kottinger Place.

Pleasanton Gardens and Kottinger Place, two of Pleasanton's decade's old, subsidized affordable housing for qualified older residents, will be torn down over the next two years.

The two aging structures will be replaced with much larger upgraded apartment buildings that will have double the number of housing units for seniors. The new buildings will have air conditioning, which the aging structures do not have.

The Pleasanton City Council reached the agreement Tuesday evening and approved a predevelopment analysis report to give rights to Foster City-based Mid-Peninsula Housing, the developer, owner and manager of approximately 100 properties with 25 percent senior communities.

Current development esitimates for the new structures range from $59 million to $63 million. The city's contribution will be just over $8 million from its senior housing fund.

In addition to air conditioning in the new housing units, the kitchens, bathrooms and closets will be larger with upgrades in electricity and plumbing. The buildings will be two and three stories with elevators.

Plans for the new structures have been stalled for years because nobody could agree on anything. When Mid Pen was called in, things got moving again. And to the credit of the current council for wanting to wrap this up and not pass it on.

I like to think that if folks had just stepped back out of the box and proposed to the Lin family to build new senior housing, the voters would have approved the south Pleasanton Hills development the Lin family had asked for.

After all, the city built a new golf course for a reported $45 million. The Lin family offered to build the golf course for free along with a number of other incentives. I like to think the Lin family would have built senior housing also.