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BACKGROUND The process to update the city's Housing Element has been underway for several months. Among the required content of the Housing Element, the City must identify policies and programs that proactively address various topics and areas of concern with respect to housing, including the provision of housing affordable to all segments of the population, constraints to housing production, preservation of existing housing, and fair housing. The Housing Element update provides an opportunity to review and revise existing policies and programs, including incorporating new policies if necessary to address changing statutory requirements (of Housing Element law, and other aspects of State law); or if warranted to reflect changing community needs and priorities. During its October 2021 review of the draft Housing Element Preliminary Report, which included an assessment of the City's existing Housing Element programs, as well as extensive background on housing needs and constraints, the City Council identified a series of policy topics that warranted additional discussion and consideration as part of the Housing Element Update. Staff has researched and developed initial policy recommendations to address several of these topic areas including: • Amount of and Expenditure of the Lower -Income Housing Fee (LIHF) ■ Potential revisions to the City's Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance (IZO) • Housing Density Bonus Program • Workforce Housing and Affordability by Design Staff presented these various topics at two meetings of the Planning Commission on February 9 and February 23, and to the Housing Commission on February 28. A brief background on each topic is provided below; a more detailed background and discussion on each topic is included in two Planning Commission agenda reports, Attachment 6. DISCUSSION The following outlines each policy topic and subtopic, followed by recommendations on how the issue is recommended to be addressed for City Council consideration. Based on Council's direction, staff would formulate specific policy and/or program language for inclusion in the Housing Element. The comprehensive set of Housing Element Goals, Policies and Programs will be included in the Public Review Draft Housing Element expected to be released in late May or June. It should be noted that all policies and programs in the Housing Element are subject to review by HCD and will be subject to ongoing monitoring and future progress reports provided annually to the State. Thus, The somewhat longer list of discussion topics reviewed by the Council have been consolidated into these four discussion areas covering the broader range of policy items, some of which overlap. One topic, that of policies around homelessness, is not included in this policy discussion, since staff anticipates a forthcoming discussion of the Countywide Home Together 2026 Implementation Plan, and a possible strategy on developing a local framework for Pleasanton around homeless issues. Page 2 of 16