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Becky Dennis, Citizens for a Caring Community (CCC), stated that she just wanted to <br />say a few things as she has already submitted a letter to the Commission with more <br />details in it. She indicated that the highest priorities for CCC are to develop better <br />program and policy structure for actually having workforce housing proposals come <br />forward that are either non - profit in nature or are partnerships between non - profit and <br />market rate. She noted that the Housing Element language says the City prefers those <br />partnerships; however, this cannot be done if none are coming forward, so the City <br />really needs to take a look at the structure and make it the obvious, good, smart <br />financial decision for these developers and for property owners to say they need two <br />kinds of developers: a non - profit and a for - profit to share the site, or just a non - profit. <br />She added that because she does not want to penalize developers for doing this, this <br />brings her to the other issue, which is funding. <br />Ms. Dennis stated that there is a discrimination problem with respect to what the City <br />has accomplished in terms of development for lower- income housing. She pointed out <br />that the City has produced a lot of housing for very-low- income seniors at 100 - percent <br />affordability; yet, because the City has relied on the Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance and <br />market -rate developers to set the affordability levels, it has not produced any housing <br />for members of the workforce who earn between 51 percent and 79 percent or below <br />50 percent. She noted that the City will only provide units affordable to people who are <br />in exactly 50 percent or exactly 80 percent, and that discriminates against the majority <br />of the workforce, at 49.6 percent, who earn below the 50 percent or between 51 percent <br />and 79 percent. She further noted that more and more, people who work in Pleasanton <br />do not make a lot of money because they commute in and out of the City. <br />Ms. Dennis stated that she has some ideas about funding, and if the City Council is not <br />willing to raise the lower- income housing fee and there was a nexus, the City could <br />devote a portion of its sales tax revenue to provide housing for the people who work in <br />Pleasanton. She indicated that she does not know how much that would be or how <br />much it makes sense, but Pleasanton has 40 percent of the retail in the Valley. She <br />pointed out that if' /z percent of the sales tax was pledged for this purpose, it might make <br />it more possible to accommodate this in any new developments that come forward. She <br />added that affordable workforce housing would also be a mitigation for greenhouse gas <br />emissions, and that it makes sense that funding for housing come from a source that <br />addresses that requirement as well. She urged the Commission to look at this when <br />coming up with ideas to send forward to the City Council. She indicated that she really <br />liked the Housing Commission's idea of encouraging folks to rent their secondary units <br />to members of the workforce. She added that the City needs to provide more incentives <br />for this as well, and suggested that discounts on sewer and water might be good <br />because the little extra income and the discount might encourage some folks to sign up. <br />Lynn Kriegbaum thanked the Commission for working with the community on the <br />original CM Capital plan for 177 apartment units and asked that it reconsider the <br />rezoning of the remaining CM Capital property to avoid another 200 units that would be <br />built on that site. She stated that when her family moved into their home almost <br />30 years ago, they were told that the site was a business park and would always and <br />PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES, April 23, 2014 Page 14 of 27 <br />