It looks like the developer of Grafton Plaza is in the mood to please Dubliners when he says that he “wants the project to be lower to the ground.”

An original plan to building residential towers up to 21 stories high in East Dublin had residents all over the Tri-Valley grumbling at such an idea during the past few months. If you look around you, there aren’t too many skyscrapers towering above small businesses and residential properties.

Charter Properties has been rethinking things in order to keep in line with the city’s character and height limit.

According to the East Dublin Specific Plan, 10-story buildings at the BART station are allowed as well as a 6 story limit around transit centers. It gets quite a bit murky immediately after that. The area in the vicinity of Grafton Plaza is labeled “Campus Office,” where commercial and business buildings permitted to be built.

Developers were envisioning for Grafton Plaza to turn into a luxury hotel with a sports club and spa with enough room for office space.

In the end, people would most likely object to anything tall enough to resemble an eyesore when everything else keeps low to the ground.

- Joseph Natividad

Dublin prides itself on having a “cozy bedroom community” feel while being at the doorstep of metropolitan cities like San Francisco and Oakland. The prospect of a 21-story high rise would completely erase that calling card.

The majority of the city’s residents grumble at the idea, saying that if they wanted to live in a city with skyscrapers, they would have already moved to San Francisco. Supporters of Grafton Plaza, the property in East Dublin along 580 near Tassjara Road, believe that building it will spur economic growth and bring positive attention to the Dublin area.

If this project turns into reality (which won’t be for a few years anyway) it will become the tallest building in the Tri-Valley area, surpassing Oakland's 28-story Ordway Building and the 30-story Pacific Park Plaza in Emeryville as the tallest building in the East Bay.

The people of Dublin want continued growth in the area but most of them would much rather like for developers to build outward, not upward. As with most things that relate to human nature, it’s obvious that people don’t like change, whether it’s their favorite brand of coffee or in this case, a towering building among hundreds of two story homes.

- Joseph Natividad