10 ATTACHMENT 8 - Laserfiche WebLink

070253\14264881v7 2 Inventory sites in East Pleasanton, like ours. Though other East Pleasanton sites were recommended for inclusion in the Inventory, City planning staff recommended excluding the Steelwave Site from the Inventory, arguing that due consideration should be given to the property only as a part of the East Pleasanton Specific Plan (EPSP) process. Attachment 1 to this letter provides a historical timeline of the City’s EPSP planning process and related planning work for the Steelwave Site. As the timeline demonstrates, the City has grappled since the mid-1990s with the question of how to best develop East Pleasanton. Though the City has completed a significant amount of planning and environmental review work for the EPSP, it has also started-- and subsequently stopped -- the EPSP process four times in the last 25 years. It does not seem to us that the EPSP should be relied on as a reason for delaying consideration of the Steelwave Site as an opportunity for housing. If planning for the Steelwave Site is deferred again, we are concerned that the City’s “on again/off again” approach to East Pleasanton planning work will strand a valuable asset that could otherwise play a pivotal role in the City’s efforts to meet its Regional Housing Need Allocation (“RHNA”). In the Housing Element Update, the City is empowered to identify the Steelwave Site as a housing opportunity site, and to rezone it for residential development, without the EPSP process. We ask the Council to include the Steelwave Site in the Sites Inventory. Planning for the remainder of the EPSP (including other Steelwave-owned property) can and should proceed independently from planning for EPSP sites included in the Inventory. B. The Steelwave Site is similar to other sites recommended for inclusion in the Inventory. As with those sites, the City can meet Housing Element Law requirements for the Steelwave Site. To satisfy Housing Element Law requirements, the City must complete necessary rezoning for sites included in the Inventory within three years following adoption of the Housing Element Update.1 Throughout the Sites Inventory development process, City planning staff have repeatedly expressed concern regarding the City’s ability to meet this deadline for the Steelwave Site. City planning staff’s recommendation to exclude the Steelwave Site from the Inventory—which was ultimately adopted by the Planning Commission—was based on the complexity of planning for development of the Site due to its size and location outside City limits, its location adjacent to the site for a proposed Amazon distribution facility, and the need to determine appropriate land uses for the Site and plan for infrastructure and circulation 1 Government Code § 65583(c)(1)(A).