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Commission has become familiar with the Climate Action Plan checklist and the <br />analysis staff goes through. He added that this is done throughout the City on every <br />project, and the conclusion is that the City will meet its numbers and has done <br />everything correctly. He indicated that every project the Commission has seen of any <br />size since the Climate Action Plan was adopted has gone through that process, in the <br />same manner that this one has, and staff has ensured that relative to GHG, this project <br />complies with the Climate Action Plan. <br />Mr. Dolan then asked Ms. Stern to address the second issue regarding housing <br />inventory. <br />Ms. Stern explained that when the amount of housing that has been previously counted <br />in the adopted Housing Element is reduced, the State requires that findings be made <br />that it is consistent with the current Housing Element and that the RHNA requirements <br />can be met on the remaining sites. She stated that Exhibit D of the staff report outlines <br />staff's analysis on how these findings could be made: staff looked at the surplus units <br />the City had from the last Housing Element and compared them to the 350 units that are <br />being removed from the inventory. She indicated that staff believes the City has <br />sufficient units, in addition to the fact that the Housing Element has a program that <br />states that the amount of multi - family housing should not be reduced. She added that <br />the caveat to that is unless there are adequate sites, and the City does have adequate <br />sites remaining. <br />Mr. Dolan added that, as the Commission knows and has heard about a little bit and <br />you will hear more later tonight, the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) <br />numbers went down. He noted that the City had to have a certain number for last time; <br />but with the new numbers, the City will have a big surplus. He added that once the new <br />Housing Element is done, there will be over 1,000 extra units. He indicated that there <br />are some people who have criticized the City for doing this, but the City had to do it the <br />last time to meet RHNA numbers; however, with the new numbers, the surplus will be <br />very generous. <br />Mr. Dolan then stated that there has been an insinuation that this is not a <br />transit - oriented development (TOD) project and is not consistent with the City's TOD <br />policies. He indicated that he thinks it is very fair to say that the definition of TOD goes <br />well beyond just putting housing by a BART station. He noted that there is a lot of <br />thinking, including the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) and regional and <br />non - profit planning organizations, that definitely includes office. He added that the <br />creation of a TOD district does not revolve around one project; it includes what else is <br />around it, and often there is a mix of uses. <br />Mr. Dolan stated that there will be a reduction in the traffic from this project because of <br />its location, which is one of the reasons Workday selected this area and will purchase <br />the adjacent campus and expand it. He indicated that the City did approve that housing <br />project almost six years ago and liked that project a lot. He noted that there has been <br />no transit ridership generated from that site since it was approved, and BART is very <br />PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES, April 23, 2014 Page 8 of 27 <br />