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Mr. Bocian said that the Chamber wanted an opportunity, in light of Ivh-. MacDonald's comments, to determine if there are more opportunities for more incentives that can be offered to affordable housing. This has been ongoing for a few years. Mayor Tarver asked if Mr. MacDonald knew how much Pleasanton rents had gone up in the last few months and why they had gone up. Mr. MacDonald responded by saying that they had gone up immensely because of a lack of reasonable supply. Mayor Tarver said it was a result of greed on the part of people who see an opportunity because the supply does outreach the demand. This will continue to be the case, The increase of the housing costs that the City sees after approving a project are equal to or more than what the City is asking to increase in fees. This is all profit. lfthe house cannot be sold for the asking price a conscious choice is made. To shortchange the community in the way of getting affordable housing is not the way to go. Someone else can make the contribution along the way. Mr. MacDonald stated that it we had rent control, none of this would happen, and no one would ever build another unit in Pleasanton. He suggested that Council go to the rent control communities if they thought government control of housing is the way to get better housing. Ms. Dennis asked about safe harbor housing and how this applies to housing in Pleasanton. Mr. MacDonald stated that this was included in his report. For the people who build units that are less than 1500 square foot in size, why is an affordable housing fee charged to people who are building affordable housing. This is a great way to discourage affordable housing. The fee should begin at a particular square footage. He suggested that incentives be examined rather than the typical command/control government, which is the least creative way. One of the issued that need to be addressed is telling the builders that they will meet the affordable housing requirement units by building of a certain size unit, thus having met substantial portion of their affordable housing requirement. People will be anxious to build these units. Once the government comes in with rent control or price control unit, no further units will be built. Ms. Ayala asked Mr. MacDonald if our children could presently afford to purchase a home in Pleasanton. Mr. MacDonald said they could not and the next generation is being denied an opportunity to live in the kind of place that Pleasanton is because we are saying, as a matter of growth control and as a matter of planning, we are refusing to allow places like Pleasanton to be built. Measure D says that here is a nice suburban, well designed community after a city/county planning process and the Sierra Club is saying, "don't let that place get built". Where are those people going to live? We are in a situation where Pleasanton City Council 11 10/17/00 Minutes