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Item 7b - Staff Report PLANNING COMMISSION January 13, 1982 MEMORANDUM T0: Planning Commission FROM: Director of Planning and Community Development SUBJECT: Recommendations Regarding "Lower Income Housing" Exemptions from the Growth Management Procedures of the City-Relationship to Current Proposed Projects ATTACHMENT: Resolution No. 81-287, Affordable Housing The Residential Allocation Program (RAP) in its original form provided for a special exemption for "Subsidized lower-income housing developments." These developments were defined as projects proposed by any sponsor qualifying for any state or federal subsidized housing program designed to provide housing for households eligible for federal lower income housing assistance programs as defined by H.U.D. At each RAP allocation 10% of the total number of units allocated was set aside as the. subsidized lower income housing reserve. Approximately 120 such units were set aside during the years RAP was in effect. RAP was later amended so that unsubsidized - lower income housing could also be exempted. In order to facilitate the distribution of these reserved lower income units, the City Council adopted a policy that a project need only contain 20% of such units in order to be exempt. To date only two projects have been exempted: one 48 unit project temporarily providng ten lower income units and a 108 unit project to temporarily provide 22 such units. As a result there are 88 units remaining in the lower income housing reserve. Now that it has been decided to replace RAP with a more streamlined growth management system the question arises as to how lpwer income units will be dealt with in the future. There are projects now before the City for which. developers are seeking growth management exemptions on the basis that an "affordable" and/or partially "lower income" project will result. Last year as a result of the efforts of the Chamber of Commerce housing task force the City adopted Resolution No. 81-287 establishing an "affordable" housing competition that would exempt a chosen project(s) from the City's growth management procedures. Because of the significant change in the City's views on how to regulate residential development the affordable housing competition has been put on hold. At least two projects (with others in various stages of conceptualization) have surfaced that appear to be exactly what the housing task force and the City had in mind for that competition. These projects are and will be vying for any sort of ,growth management exemption available. - The Pleasanton Housing authority, the newly formed non-profit housing corporation, Eden Housing, Inc. (a similar non-profit corporation assisting the City) and the City staff have also been working together to implement a program for the development of more deeply subsidized lower and moderate income housing.