CCMIN042010 - Laserfiche WebLink

Brian Dolan, Director of Community Development provided a background on the City's 1996 voter approved housing cap, which created a hard limit of 29,000 units and provided a method for residents to participate in any General Plan amendments that would impact the number of residential units in the City. Staff has come to learn that Pleasanton stands alone in having a hard cap and while other jurisdictions may refer to certain growth management measures as a cap, each allow for a sort of adjustment with which to accommodate for RHNA obligations. Mr. Dolan provided a background on RHNA, which responds to state law requirements that each city and county has an obligation to plan for its fair share of the state's housing needs and to address the needs of various income groups throughout the community. The RHNA assignment for the fourth planning period (2007 -2014) totaled 214,500 units for the Bay Area, with 44,939 in Alameda County, and 3,277 of that being assigned to Pleasanton. He noted that these assessments do not constitute an obligation to build, but merely to plan for and zone to accommodate. It is also required that each jurisdiction provide an inventory of land that will facilitate development of and can accommodate low and very low- income units, currently considered to be at least 30 units per acre. If the City were to implement all 3,277 units, coupled with the total number of constructed, under construction, and approved units as of January 2010, the community would ultimately be planned for 30,808 units. Mr. Dolan reviewed State law relative to the Housing Element and explained that the primary challenge for most communities is in coming up with an inventory of residential land that is suitable for development, particularly with the caveat that a portion of that land has to be envisioned as providing housing for various income groups. In the 2003 Housing Element update, the City was not able to identify that land at the time of adoption and was 871 units short. Since that time, the City has attempted to address that shortfall and has rezoned portions of land near the BART station at Stoneridge Mall and 3 individual sites at the Hacienda Business Park. The City was required to prepare a new Housing Element by June 2009, but ongoing litigation made it very difficult to begin that process. Regardless of which path the Council chooses to follow in terms of resolving this litigation, the Housing Element update will need to commence very soon and, due to the heightened awareness of the relative issues, staff envisions that process can be completed in approximately one year. Staff also believes that this process will provide excellent opportunity to discuss a new or revised growth management program to address the situation created by the court's ruling on the existing housing cap. Mr. Dolan stated that in addition to the cap, the City has used a variety of tools to ensure orderly growth: the normal development review process and standards outlined in the General Plan, the CEQA process, and the Growth Management Ordinance which was recently amended to make an exception for RHNA obligations. Currently, the Growth Management Ordinance divides development applications into 3 categories: 1) affordable housing projects, which have an annual allotment and can be carried forward into subsequent years; 2) major projects, defined as projects of 100 units or more; and 3) first come, first served projects for smaller developments. He noted that none of these measures really come into play unless growth levels generate interest above the annual cap, a situation the City has not seen for quite some time. In response to the potential elimination of the housing cap, the City can continue to rely on the existing Growth Management Ordinance and also consider growth management systems which rely more specifically on citywide standards for services and infrastructure or which meter growth based on a project's ability to meet various policy themes adopted within the General Plan. City Council Minutes Page 6 of 9 April 20, 2010