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Staff is suggesting that the City Council may wish to re-visit this direction and reconsider <br />whether any of the proposed CLC units, if approved, should count towards the housing <br />cap since assisted living projects have not been considered as residential in the past. <br />Moreover, these 240 units could be made available to other projects to increase their <br />viability and to meet City goals such as providing affordable housing and mixed use <br />development. <br />Hacienda representatives have expressed an interest in developing their proposed <br />Transit Oriented Development (TOD) Specific Plan with more units than their <br />preliminary "allocation" of 333 units and have indicated that the potential availability of <br />more units, including the Staples Ranch allocation and the additional "double counted <br />units," would send a positive message to their stakeholders and would expedite their <br />efforts in finalizing their Specific Plan. There is interest on the part of several Hacienda <br />property owners to bring development proposals to the City, and staff and Hacienda <br />representatives believe that it would be best if the various proposals were considered <br />under the umbrella of the Specific Plan. <br />The Planning Commission discussed this issue when it reviewed the Draft Land Use <br />Element. Three of the five Planning Commissioners present believed that fewer than <br />240 units associated with the Staples Ranch development should be counted towards <br />the cap (suggesting that only the duet units be counted) if the units were developed <br />elsewhere as affordable housing or in transit oriented development (TOD) projects. <br />They also suggested that these additional units, as well as the approximately 300 units <br />which were "found" as a result of data base consolidation, be assigned to Hacienda <br />since a majority of the Commissioners support a viable TOD project in that location. <br />If the City Council has an interest in modifying its direction regarding the Staples Ranch <br />units counted under the cap, and in providing direction on the use of the additional <br />"found" units, it should so recommend, and staff can prepare revised language for the <br />Draft Land Use Element. <br />New Land Use Designations: Two new land use designations are proposed as part of <br />the Draft Land Use Element: <br />Mixed Use: This land use allows any combination of business park, office, retail, <br />research and development, community facilities, and residential uses in a single <br />building or on a single site, where the uses are integrated and designed as a <br />cohesive project. Higher density residential uses (30 units per acre or more) are <br />encouraged adjacent to BART stations and other areas near transit. The Mixed <br />Use designation is proposed to be applied to the parcel adjacent to the new <br />BART station at Stoneridge Mall Road, and to Hacienda (except for the existing <br />residential areas of the park which will retain their residential designation). The <br />number and location of residential units would be determined by PUD zoning or <br />by a Specific Plan. <br />As noted above, the actual number of units under the General Plan can vary from <br />the calculated "holding capacity" if future projects are approved at less than the <br />Page 4 of 10 <br />