There's been lots of well-deserved buzz about the revitalization of downtown Livermore, but that's not the only city on the move.

Dublin has become known for its major condo and apartment complexes in East Dublin, but its on the cusp of turning the corner in other ways. The city already has $1 million homes in Dublin Ranch, but the Schaeffer Ranch tucked into the western hills will add another dimension of housing to the community.

Schaeffer Ranch wont have models ready until next year after a two-year construction process that includes moving amazing amounts of dirt to extend Dublin Boulevard. Couple Schaeffer Ranch with plans for the Emerald Glen shopping center on the former IKEA site and shopping in Dublin will move to an entirely new level.

And, it likely will not be a new height level for buildings. Mayor Janet Lockhart told the audience at the Dublin Chamber of Commerce's real estate luncheon that Charter Properties would be bringing back a different project than the four buildings that included 15-story and 21-story towers.

It was clear that the mayors e-mail box had been bombarded with comments about the legitimate high-rise buildings. Currently, the six-story Sybase headquarters and similar office buildings in San Ramon are the tallest in the Tri-Valley area.

A different project will be coming back for city review. Incidentally, 10 stories is the current height limit around the BART stations.

At last weeks chamber event, Albert Seeno III, president Advertisement of Schaeffer Ranch developer Discovery Homes, and Jerry Hunt, president of Blake Hunt Ventures, both explained their projects.

Hunt, no relation to yours truly, and his firm have abandoned more than $5 million of grading and underground construction to create a new shopping center concept for Dublin and perhaps the entire East Bay.

They wont make the same mistakes that mar Hacienda Crossings where the concept of a movie theater, retailers and restaurants all in the same center was good, but the execution was awful.

Instead of the parking disaster in the center of the complex at Hacienda Crossings, Emerald Place will surround the retail buildings with parking and have just a one-way street circling the center green that will be the size of two football fields.

The companys goal is to create a space where families would hang out for the day instead of making a 45-minute stop and then moving it. It will feature restaurants, high-end retailers and reportedly the developers are close to signing Whole Foods as an anchor tenant. Hunt would not confirm the Whole Foods report.

If Whole Foods commits to the site, then it will move the center up the retail ladder with higher-end operations coming to town.

Mayor Lockhart, another panelist, responded to a question about Dublin cornering the market on apartments and condos by pointing out that the City Council has just taken action to mandate backyards or front yards for the later developments further east. The goal is to create more single-family units that presumably could be designed to be more affordable.

The mayor also pointed out that Dublin is seeing a revitalization of old shopping centers at a couple of key entrances to the city and that its done so by encouraging private developers instead of a redevelopment agency. The market is driving the process along with a cooperative city that is pursuing its vision.

Anyone who suffers through Interstate 580 commutes across the Livermore Valley should pay close attention to the Metropolitan Transportation Commissions pitch for solutions to moving cargo.

The I-580 corridor through the Valley carries a huge load of commerce traffic — most specifically trucks delivering to retailers in the Bay Area from distribution centers in the San Joaquin Valley. Thats almost 60 percent of the truck traffic. Mix in containers moving to and from the Port of Oakland (one-third of which are empty and simply being repositioned) and you have an ugly mix of commuters and trucks.

The Bay Area commission, which represents all nine counties, is the primary planning agency and funding agency for state and federal money coming to the region. The goods movement initiative grew out of an East Bay initiative spearheaded by the East Bay Economic Development Alliance to focus attention on the critical trucking issues. The port is an economic engine for Northern California and, as Southern California ports become increasingly congested, the Oakland port has the opportunity to bring additional container ships through its docks.

The traffic and rail impacts felt in the Bay Area are trivial compared to those in the Long Beach and San Pedro areas where about 45 percent of the total container traffic in the country is processed.

The challenge for the Bay Area will be to get its reasonable share of the $2 billion allocated for trade corridors in the state. Improving operations at the Port of Stockton, which could serve as an inland terminal for the Port at Oakland, and purchasing the right-of-way for a short-haul rail from the San Joaquin Valley to Fremont — both could reduce container truck traffic on I-580.