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Best Practices for Density Greater than 30 units per acre In addition to informing consideration of densities appropriate for various sites that may be included in the current 6th Cycle Housing Element, a discussion of best design practices for density over 30 units per acre is informative for a number of reasons. Given the high 6th Cycle Regional Housing Needs Allocation, the City may wish to consider zoning sites above 30 units per acre, or even above 40 units to the acre, to accommodate more units on fewer sites or to provide an opportunity to better encourage blended densities that would mix different building densities across Housing Element sites. And, even for sites zoned at 30 to 40 units per acre, it is possible that developers may seek to make use of housing density bonuses (which the City must allow pursuant to state law), which could result in projects well above their base-zoned densities. Finally, AB 2923 dictates a minimum density of 75 units to the acre that must be allowed for on properties owned by BART, including the BART site in Pleasanton. Therefore, a robust set of standards that could ensure projects above 30 or 40 units to the acre are attractive and well-designed is helpful to consider, irrespective of whether sites carry this higher base density. Accordingly, a part of the presentation for this meeting is anticipated to include examples of projects with greater overall density, from around the Bay Area including Mountain View and Redwood City, along with best practices from these projects, and factors that influence the creation of high-density housing. Generally, best practices for projects of greater density than 30 units per acre include: • Standards that require stepbacks when adjacent to existing residential development • High-density projects are located along transit corridors or in/near retail centers and office or research and development locations (and other appropriate locations as determined by the community) • Unit entries are required along the street and buildings are required to be detailed • Vehicular parking is discrete, located in subgrade podiums or garages • The high-density projects create gathering places for the community, and encourage mixed-use where retail can be successful The consultant team from VMWP, which has extensive experience working in these and similar communities, will lead this portion of the presentation, and help facilitate input from the Planning Commission on the sorts of considerations that may be particularly important to Pleasanton with respect to design of higher density housing types, and whether this is a concept that should be further explored through the Housing Element update. Next Steps Comments and feedback from the Planning Commission at this meeting will be incorporated into the next draft of the document, and staff anticipates that the next revision presented to the Planning Commission will include sites that are selected for the current Housing Element (6th Cycle update). In the interim and over the next few months as part of the Housing Element update process, staff will seek guidance and recommendations from the Planning Commission regarding potential new sites and associated densities for each potential new site. While the documents enclosed with this agenda report (and to be appended to reflect future Housing Element sites) apply to larger-scale, higher density development, the project team will also be working on objective standards for smaller-scale infill development. In particular, staff recommends these standards address pending state legislation that would allow the splitting of P20-0989, Objective Design Standards Planning Commission 13 of 14