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encourage future housing supply in Pleasanton because it makes the transitions to <br /> residential, in effect, pre-approved, with the property owner and market conditions <br /> rather than planners and politicians in control of when the conversion happens. <br /> If the 2014-2022 RHNA Cycle was the event that proved rent controls fail to improve <br /> housing affordability, the 2023-2031 RHNA Cycle can be the event that proves <br /> increased housing supply can improve housing affordability. <br /> d. The Housing Cost Driver. <br /> As a commodity, building square footage costs about the same to build in all parts of the <br /> U.S. Building techniques are national, as are building codes. Products like lumber, <br /> appliances, and glass are purchased from a national market. The difference in housing <br /> prices between states is primarily in the cost of government entitlements. Thus, with <br /> substantial increases in entitled land (as now required by RHNA), and limitations on <br /> local government rent seeking, the housing prices in any California community can be <br /> driven down toward the cost of producing those units —to the point of surplus. The <br /> younger generation in any given city can have affordable market rate housing, in a <br /> relatively short time, by allowing housing supply to meet the existing need. <br /> What Can Pleasanton Do? <br /> 1. Repeal the Growth Management Ordinance. <br /> Pleasanton slickly managed to suppress housing supply to below the level specified in <br /> its Growth Management Ordinance in the last RHNA Cycle. Now, State law has <br /> restricted growth management ordinances. The flawed strategy of government created <br /> shortages in housing is hurting life chances for a whole generation. We can start the <br /> change in local housing policy by repealing the Growth Management Ordinance. <br /> 2. Entitle More Land for Housing. <br /> One key step is to entitle much more land for housing, which the 2023-2031 RHNA <br /> requirements are doing, in Pleasanton and everywhere in California. <br /> A related step is for the City to be an honest broker in helping housing proposals that <br /> emerge which were not shown on its housing sites inventory (rather than refusing to <br /> process any such proposals as is past practice). Drop the RHNA moratorium. <br /> 3. Change to Unit Size Inclusionary. <br /> Change the focus of local housing policy toward units that are affordable by design, <br /> without subsidies. Pleasanton could substantially increase housing supply in the sizes <br /> needed to be affordable to our children's generation by greatly reducing, or eliminating <br /> the price controls on new housing construction. This can be done most simply by <br /> changing inclusionary requirements from price controls to unit size controls. <br /> 9 <br />