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additional 2,088 units, at 30 units or more an acre. The City Council is being asked to consider a list of sites that would meet this housing need, and to act on General Plan amendments, Specific Plan amendments and rezoning to designate these sites for multifamily residential development. Prior to acting on the land use changes, the City Council will consider and certify a Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Report that describes the potential environmental impacts of future multifamily development of these sites. The City Council is scheduled to adopt the updated Housing Element of the General Plan in early February, 2012. PLANNING COMMISSION ACTION On December 14, 2011, the Planning Commission recommended approval of: (1) the Supplemental Environmental Impact Report documents for the General Plan Housing Element and Climate Action Plan; (2) the draft Housing Element of the General Plan; (3) General Plan amendments, Specific Plan amendments and/or rezoning of nine sites to allow multifamily or single family residential development of mixed use (including multifamily residential development). Staff presented the list of sites shown in Table 1 which represents a small surplus of units over the 2,088 required. Staff believes the surplus is appropriate given that HCD could possibly reject one of the sites in its review of the adopted Housing Element. Further, the City would get credit for any additional units in the next Housing Element planning period. The vote was 4-1 with Chair Narum dissenting regarding the list of sites to be re-designated; she believed the Planning Commission should recommend the minimum amount of acreage needed to meet the City's housing need, whereas the list presented included approximately 238 units over and above the City's housing need. In addition, the Planning Commission was unanimous in supporting the preparation of an East Pleasanton Specific Plan, starting in the first quarter of 2012 and concluding by the second quarter of 2013. FINANCIAL STATEMENT The City Council's action will have no financial impact. Any future development will pay all required building permit and development fees, and will pay property taxes. BACKGROUND In October 2010, the City Council confirmed an 11-member Housing Element Task Force with the mission to oversee the update of the City's Housing Element. After nine Task Force meetings, four community workshops, input from housing experts, and extensive community input at Task Force and community meetings, and via e-mail, the Housing Element Task Force recommended a draft list of potential sites for rezoning and goals, policies and programs for the 2007 to 2014 Housing Element. Following review and discussion at its meeting on July 19, 2011, the City Council authorized staff to submit the Draft Housing Element to the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) for its 60-day review. The Draft Housing Element as submitted to HCD is provided in Attachment 3. HCD provided the City with comments on the Draft Housing Element in a letter dated October 14, 2011 (Attachment 4). In preparing the response, HCD considered letters from Citizens for a Caring Community (Attachment 5) and Public Advocates (Attachment 6). Concurrent with the preparation of the Draft Housing Element, Environmental Science Associates (ESA) and staff prepared a Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Page 2 of 12