Downtown Pleasanton is trying on a new look for 1987 and it's in the shape of pedestrian benches, trellises and bright street lamp Christmas decorations. As part of the City of Pleasanton's preparation of a plan to guide the future development of Downtown Pleasanton, the City, in conjunction with a citizens' Downtown Committee, has retained the architectural firm of Heacox, Crutcher & Associates to prepare a preliminary plan for the revitalization of Main Street.

The proposed plan includes adding trellises, enhanced street paving, a variety of street furniture and landscaping to Main Street; reconfiguring St. Johns Street; restriping Main Street to provide diagonal parking; closing the west side of Angela Street to create a pedestrian mall and creating a central plaza at the intersection of Main and Division Streets.

As a result of people indicating they were having difficulty visualizing the proposed improvements from the architectural renderings, the City and the Chamber of Commerce Downtown Committee displayed full scale models of some of the plan's elements February 11-13. On display were a model of the proposed trellis, a street bench and garbage container similar to those proposed and one street lamp painted white.

The Downtown improvement elements were displayed along with the Association's display of Christmas street decorations which are also under consideration. Surveys were available in front of Kolln Hardware, at the City offices and several banks in the downtown area for residents and business owners to express their comments about the proposed changes

Chandler Lee, principal planner for the City of Pleasanton, was available to answer questions while the displays were out and indicated that the proposed additions and renovations have received mixed responses. "Some are very pleased about the plans saying that the various elements will reflect the old downtown tradition and spirit and will highlight the Welcome to Pleasanton Main Street archway, and others feel the trellises may detract from the store fronts."  he noted.

Chad Crutcher, of Heacox, Crutcher & Associates, commented that "our proposed architectural renovation borrows from Pleasanton's past via the trellised arches and old-fashioned park benches but it is also designed with the future of Pleasanton in mind by preserving the "old main street" style with a fresh, new look."

The Chamber of Commerce's Downtown Committee, led by Martin Inderbitzen of McNichols, McCann, Siebel & Inderbitzen, has been instrumental in the display of the new features in order to get community reaction and the overall coordination of the project in conjunction with Pat Lane, executive director of the Downtown Association.

"The revitalizing of the downtown area is a community-wide project since Main Street is the heart of Pleasanton," said Inderbitzen. "It is a public project, in the public right of way and many of our business members are in the downtown area so we decided to help facilitate the process by making a concerted effort to get business people's input."

To see a reproduction of the original article and edition of Pleasanton Pathways, visit: February 23, 1987 Pathways.