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BACKGROUND The Housing Element is part of the City's General Plan and is a comprehensive statement by the community of its current and future housing needs and proposed actions to facilitate the provision of housing to meet those needs at all income levels. Periodic updates of the Housing Element are required by state law. The element reflects the state's housing goal of "attaining decent housing and a suitable living environment for every California family," as well as incorporating the unique concerns of the community. The City's current Housing Element, which was adopted in 2015, covers the 5th Cycle planning period from 2015 to 2022. The Draft Housing Element for the City Council's review at this meeting covers the 6th Cycle planning period from 2023-2031. RHNA Process A key component of the Housing Element is the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA), which is a planning target representing the City's "fair share" of the regional housing need, as determined by HCD and the regional Council of Government (in the Bay Area, ABAG). As described later in this report, the City's RHNA is established at 5,965 units — this number was assigned to the City based on a methodology developed by ABAG in consultation with various stakeholders, through a multi-month process in 2020 and 2021. The City engaged closely throughout the RHNA process, including monitoring of the methodology's development, and submittal of an appeal of the Draft RHNA to ABAG. More broadly, statewide, the 6th Cycle RHNA process has been closely scrutinized and critiqued, leading to a recent audit and report by the State which raised several criticisms of HCD's technical process and made several recommendations for improvements to be undertaken by HCD going forward. Despite these criticisms, the Audit Report did not call for modification of any of the regional or local RHNA allocations, and therefore the City's Draft Housing Element continues to use the 5,965 unit target assigned by ABAG. Timeline and Public Consultation The City formally initiated the Housing Element update process in March 2021 with hearings beginning in May 2021. At each step of the process, the City has engaged the community through social media, the local press, utility bill mailing, website development, an online survey, and other methods. There have been approximately 40 public meetings and outreach events which included, among others, an in-person booth at the Farmers Market, community workshops, Commission meetings, and Council meetings. Staff also engaged with various stakeholder groups and representatives from community-based organizations, as well as the development community, to seek input on opportunities, constraints, and challenges around housing in Pleasanton. A summary of the meetings, outreach events, and key engagement themes are included in Section I.E of the Draft Housing Element. There has also been targeted outreach related to fair housing that included Zoom focus groups, a booth at the Muslim Community Center, a booth at a Dia Del Nino event, and an online survey among other methods. The survey was distributed through the senior center, the library's English learning and adult literacy programs, and with Open Heart Kitchen meal service. It was also distributed to over 20 community organizations that Page 2 of 18