PLEASANTON — Pleasanton city officials kept their promise — albeit late — to include residents' input on future commercial and residential development plans for the area near the Hacienda BART station.

The city council voted unanimously Tuesday to place residents fearful of an increase in association dues on the same committee with property owners hoping to develop the park on a 19-member community task force that will put together a plan for future development in the Hacienda Business Park.

"It's important that there is a task force and ability for residents and stakeholders to participate in the planning process," said council member Matt Sullivan. "It's much better than the city council saying this what you are going to get."

The task force will be involved in the process, but the council will have final say on development plans. Creating the task force is a first step in bringing long awaited transit-oriented development to the city's existing BART station.

The council first promised to form the group in August of 2008 after it approved a transit-oriented development on land near the new BART station being built by the intersection of Interstate 580 and 680.

The council went back on its promise two weeks ago, at its Oct. 20 meeting, when it rezoned 31 acres in the business park due to a lawsuit filed by a nonprofit housing group and the state attorney general over the city's failure to comply with state

Acting before a Dec. 18 court date for the lawsuit, the council voted 3-2 — council members Sullivan and Cindy McGovern dissenting — to rezone property owned by W.P. Care, BRE properties and Roche Molecular from a planned unit development of industrial, commercial and office use to a mixed use that could provide a minimum of 948 new housing units.

"We could have brought this forward sooner," said Sullivan. "We knew the deadline to do this rezoning and we should have built the task force before the rezoning. We didn't plan it out properly."

Making the rezoning decision before the task force was formed upset residents living in the Hacienda Business Park, but as part of the agreement the council promised to have guidelines for the task force established at Tuesday's meeting. Business park residents felt the task force was necessary to address concerns about safety, increased traffic and the burden on schools.

Residents also worry about increased monthly homeowner fees. Residents in four of the six Hacienda neighborhoods already pay a total of about $185,000 a year to the business park, for which they receive no services said Steve Bursley, a Hacienda resident since 1996.

The council expects to start forming the task force in late December and has a 12-month goal to create a development plan.

Reach Robert Jordan at 925-847-2184.