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Photo Opinion
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| Larry
Cannon’s towers In
the small Tuscan town of San Gimignano, there exists home after
home with towers reaching to the sky. Nine hundred years ago
families built towers to show their wealth and standing in the
community. The towers with different styles and colors of bricks
are the ones where the families added to them when their economic
circumstances improved.
For Pleasanton, the question why is does every new building
have a bell (clock) tower?
The answer is simple, Larry Cannon. Mr. Cannon is an architect
that Pleasanton goes to for peer review of plans submitted by
local builders. One might wonder why local builders/architects
would need peer reviewing in the first place. More appropriately,
why would local area architects be peer reviewed by only one
architect and one with a tower fetish?
The photos in this issue’s Photo Op are only a few illustrations
of Pleasanton’s boring skyline. Mr. Cannon is probably
a good guy. He could even be a competent architect. He might
even be following directions from Pleasanton city officials.
No matter, the boring buildings being built here are making
Pleasanton monotonous and that should be a concern to citizens
who see Pleasanton as cutting edge.
Finally, the cost of doing business in Pleasanton is directly
tied to the cost of development. Peer review is costly with
the costs passed on to tenants and ultimately consumers.
That tower at McDonalds at the corner of Bernal Avenue and Stanley
Boulevard ends up in the price of the burgers. Storage customers
pay for the towers of the U Store It storage facility across
the street at Stanley Boulevard and Valley Avenue. The motoring
public who uses AAA, Diablo Auto Body’s main customer,
ultimately pays for the tower at Diablo Auto Body at the corner
of Utah Street and Bernal Avenue. The towers at City Hall on
Bernal Avenue, the Senior Center and the assisted living center
next door on Sunol Boulevard are paid for by city taxpayers
and by assisted living residents and their families.
The invisible cost of peer review (and towers) is the additional
cost to developers for time wasting, for plans and presentations,
and ultimately the projected expense to build the buildings
the city will approve but the builder can no longer afford.
Either those projects go away or the costs are applied to resubmitted
projects. Regency Centers will ultimately pass on to tenants
and then consumers for the stops and starts on the center that
had originally featured The Home Depot.
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