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take in the future to monitor more closely how State laws are being formed and for the City to have a say in those before they become final. She voiced appreciation for Ms. Dennis' perspective on how the housing units will be allocated for a target group, and she thinks that even though the City lost the housing cap, it has not lost the ability to control growth. The City just needs to ensure it does so in a legal manner while also ensuring the quality of life. In addition to the subcommittee's work, she also recognized the amount of time staff spent on the matter and said it virtually stopped other items coming before the City. She thanked everybody who worked so hard on negotiations and the final agreement and thinks it is incumbent on the City to satisfy all of the conditions of the settlement as quickly as possible. She thanked Mr. Brown for his work and also his exceptional job of summarizing the matter. She said the City needs to gear up to complete an updated Housing Element with smart growth management policies that protects Pleasanton and is consistent with State law, and she supported the agreement's approval. Vice Mayor Thorne said he continues to feel the City has the best agreement it could have possibly arrived at under the circumstances, and one that achieves all of the goals originally shed as a Council for negotiations. He thinks any decision the Council might have made to continue litigating would have created an expensive, black hole, and he supported moving forward. Even the settlement agreement preserves as much local control as possible. He voiced redundancy in his concerns about the State's seizure of cities' local control over land use and other issues. He believes that the best route for taking some of this local control back in this case is a comprehensive growth management plan that does take into account the RHNA numbers and makes sure the City has a good dispersion of the kinds of housing it should have in the community. He also thinks that the City should take a look at social services that might be available within the community, which also needs to be part of the consideration. He fully intends to do anything he can locally and through the California League of Cities and other 18 boards and commissions he sits on to preserve and defend the City's right to local control over land use issues. He is sure the rest of the Council feels the same way, and he asked to keep in mind that passing legislation that impacts local land use control is something easy for the State legislature to do, as it does not cost anything to them, but does for Pleasanton. He thinks everybody needs to be diligence in our interactions, not only with State legislature but also with other groups the Council is in contact with to ensure it is doing everything it can to preserve local control over its own land use. MOTION: It was m/s by McGovern /Cook - Kallio to approve a Settlement Agreement between the City of Pleasanton and Urban Habitat Public Advocates and Attorney General. Motion passed by the following vote: Ayes: Councilmembers Cook - Kallio, McGovern, Sullivan, Vice Mayor Thorne Noes: None Absent: Mayor Hosterman BREAK Vice Mayor Thorne called for a five - minute break, and thereafter reconvened the regular meeting. City Council Minutes Page 7 of 11 August 17, 2010