03 ATTACHMENT 4 - Laserfiche WebLink

Planning Commission City of Pleasanton December 14, 2022 Page 3 II. “PUD Conformance Review” Should Provide for Streamlined Approval Based on Objective Standards that Actually Allow for Development of Units Contemplated in the HEU. In response to the City’s earlier HEU draft, HCD raised concerns regarding a requirement that many HEU sites undergo a secondary, discretionary, and project- specific Planned Unit Development (“PUD”) rezoning process for approval.6 We echo HCD’s concerns that requiring housing development projects to undergo this secondary process introduces substantial extra time, cost, and uncertainty that would act as a constraint to housing development. Such constraints are fundamentally inconsistent with state housing law. (See Gov. Code, § 65583 (c)(3)7, and Gov. Code, § 65589.58 (Housing Accountability Act (“HAA”).) To comply with state housing law, the City should provide for a staff level, streamlined approval process for projects that are consistent with the applicable, objective standards set out in the General Plan. If the City intends to adopt ODS and comprehensive amendments to its IZO, it should only do so after allowing sufficient community input and review to ensure such changes do not impede housing development – it is entirely appropriate for this to occur after the City adopts a substantially compliant HEU. Moreover, it is likely necessary that the City’s new PUD process allow for the same community input and review given that the City already has a PUD ordinance and any changes to that ordinance must follow the rezoning procedures set forth in the state Planning and Zoning Law. A. The City Should Provide for Staff-Level, Streamlined Review of Qualifying Housing Projects. In response to HCD’s concerns regarding the PUD process, City staff propose a new “PUD conformance review” where “sites identified for housing in the Housing Element are reviewed strictly for conformance to applicable objective design standards.” This new “streamlined” PUD process requires review by the Planning Commission, but only to confirm that housing developments proposed on HEU sites conform with Objective Design Standards (“ODS”). Projects unable to comply with the ODS would undergo the City’s traditional and much more time-consuming 6 HCD’s November 14, 2022, letter expressed concerns that a discretionary PUD approval process would constrain critically needed housing production by introducing extra time, cost, and uncertainty in the approval process for such projects. And HCD’s letter specifically explained that the HEU “must analyze” the PUD process for impacts on supply, cost, financial feasibility, timing, and approval certainty. It is not clear that the proposed modifications to the Draft HEU, ODS, and IZO include all of this mandatory analysis, 7 Government Code section 65583(c)(3) requires a Housing Element to address and, where appropriate, remove governmental constraints to the development of new housing. 8 In support of its goals of addressing the state’s acute housing supply crisis, the HAA constrains local agencies’ ability to deny housing development projects that comply with applicable, objective general plan, zoning, and other development standards and criteria. Attachment 4 - ODS Public Comments - 01-26-23 CC - Page 3