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BACKGROUND The City of Pleasanton completed its fourth Housing Element revision with adoption of a new Housing Element in February 2012. Minor amendments were subsequently made to the element and in October, 2012, the California Department of Housing and Community Development found the City of Pleasanton's Housing Element in full compliance with State housing element law. Staff is about to start on the fifth revision of the Housing Element, the schedule for which requires the City to adopt a legally adequate Housing Element by January 31, 2015. HOUSING ELEMENT OVERVIEW The Housing Element is one of seven elements of the General Plan mandated by State law. Unlike other mandatory General Plan elements, the Housing Element is subject to detailed statutory requirements and mandatory review by the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD). In addition, Government Code Section 65400 establishes the requirement that each city and county shall report annually on the status of the Housing Element and progress in its implementation. Housing Element law requires local governments to adequately plan to meet their existing and projected housing needs including their share of the regional housing need. In order to create a plan to meet housing need, State law requires the Housing Element include the following: • A review and evaluation of programs and policies in the previous element, looking at the effectiveness of the element and how the policies and programs could be amended and refined; • An analysis of population and employment trends; • An analysis and documentation of household and housing characteristics; • An inventory of land and an analysis of zoning and available public services; • An analysis of government and non-government constraints and efforts to remove them; • An analysis of special housing needs, including special populations such as the homeless, elderly, disabled, and large families; • An analysis of opportunities for energy conservation; • An analysis of assisted housing which may be eligible to conversion to market rate housing; • A statement of goals, quantified objectives and policies; and, • An action plan to implement the policies and achieve the goals and objectives of the Housing Element. STREAMLINED REVIEW BY THE DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT (HCD) For the fifth update of the Housing Element HCD is allowing a streamlined review of the submitted Housing Element revision. The streamlined review will still require a local government to address all the statutory requirements of State housing element law, but, for certain topics, limits HCD's review to changes made to the element since the last Housing Element review. If a City qualifies for streamlined review, HCD reduces its Page 2 of 5