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ATTACHMENT 3 DRAFT P13 -2012, City of Pleasanton Application to amend Title 17 of the Pleasanton Municipal Code by adding a new Chapter 17.38 (Density Bonus) to comply with State Density Bonus Law. Deborah Diamond presented the staff report and explained that scope and key elements of the proposal. Commissioner O'Connor noted that requests for density bonus are so uncommon and inquired why the City has so few requests for density bonus or none at all. Ms. Diamond replied that a lot of it depends on the individual projects and the individual sites. She indicated that many times, for a bonus, a city will establish a maximum density that will allow housing up to the amount of development that the builder could get under wood frame construction, and anything above that would have to go to steel or concrete. She added that many times, developers are not willing to take on the additional expense and retooling to do non -wood frame construction. She noted that there are affordable housing developers who are developing straight affordable housing, probably not much in the Bay Area, who frequently use density bonus as a tool. She added, however, that sometimes, when there is something odd about a site, a developer will provide affordable housing, not so much to get the bonus but to get a concession such as a reduced setback or some other re- configuration. Mr. Dolan stated that in one of his conversations with Ms. Stern about their planning careers, both noted that they had never processed one of these applications in all the time that they have been doing this. He indicated that that does not mean that it does not happen but that it is pretty uncommon. He added that there are the costs of higher density, and everyone has assumed for years and years that the higher the density, the more money it will make, and of course everybody would want it. Mr. Dolan stated that the issue of the type of construction is very important. He noted that when the City did all these re- zonings, staff was suggesting to some people to go higher; and staff could only talk a couple of people into going higher because they knew that would put them into a podium product, and they did not think the market could support it and so they wanted the lower density. He indicated that sometimes it is difficult to get extra density when developers start to look at all of the site development standards such as getting the parking to fit, and they just run out of space. He noted that higher density just does not work out with all the landscape, open space, and setbacks requirements. He added that there is also a weird thing that happens, based on the particular regulatory structure, and it exists right now here where the high- density General Plan designation is anything above eight units per acre, which, theoretically, goes to infinity. He stated that every high- density project, all of this things sound pretty scary, but if someone comes and the land is designated high - density, there is nothing to add the bonus to as it is eight units to infinity. He noted that it is the exact same conversation that staff has on a regular project with no bonus, and so no one every bothers to bring it forward. DRAFT EXCERPT: PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES, 8/28/2013 Page 1 of 3