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City's assisted living facility project. The City will also continue to utilize its Housing Fund (supported through payment of the bower Income Housing Fee by developers) to finance activities promoting affordable housing. Land Costs The City does not have ownership of many parcels of land at the present time. Therefore, the market cost of land is posing an increasing constraint to new affordable housing development in which the City has direct involvement. However, the City has worked and will continue to work with individual developers and with the owners of large land holdings to attempt to reserve additional sites for affordable housing development during the five-year Strategic Plan period. As described earlier, the City was recently successful in negotiating a 15 percent set-aside of affordable housing units (31 rental units for low and very low income households; 56 ownership units for low income first-time home buyers) on a 200 acre portion of the 500 acre Bernal property south of the Alameda County Fairgrounds, which will ultimately accommodate a total of 581 new housing units and new commercial development. This agreement also resulted in the dedication of the remaining 318 acres to the City of Pleasanton for "public uses." "fhe acquisition of this land will provide the City with new flexibility and opportunities to consider options for new housing development should future conditions and community needs warrant. 'l~he recent adoption of an Inclusionary 7.oning Ordinance, accompanied by an updated General Plan Ilousing F,lement (April 2003), are beginning to yield positive results in the Form of discussions of possible land dedication in lieu of builders providing affordable housing units. Housing Development Costs The City will continue to work to offset the costs of housing development by waiving certain City fees for affordable rental and ownership housing units and by providing various types of subsidies through the use of its Lower Income I{ousing Fund. The example was cited earlier in this report of extensive fee waivers that have been granted in the past to defray development costs and promote affordable housing construction. Community Perceptions of Affordable [lousing A continuing impediment to affordable housing development is the sometimes negative perception of affordable housing held by many members of the public. The City of Pleasanton provides funding to East Bay Housing Organizations (EBHO) to implement an on-going "Yes In My Back Yard" program which is aimed at improving people's perceptions and understanding of affordable housing. 'fhe goal is to foster greater acceptance of new affordable housing so that negative public sentiment is not an impediment to the City's efforts to create and maintain its affordable housing stock. In conjunction with other "I'ri-Valley cities, the City of Pleasanton will work with F,BHO in FY 2007 in activities related to Affordable Housing Week, held annually in May. This will Aclion Plan - FY07 City of Pleasanton Page 29