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If such units were to be counted as housing units and applied towards the cap, <br />fewer conventional housing units would be available to be built under the cap than are <br />now anticipated. <br />Regarding second units, they would not be counted due to the provision of State <br />law that mandates that second units shall not be counted as housing units for the purposes <br />of any policy to limit residential growth.la <br />Regarding assisted living facilities, the City's historical practice has been to <br />consider such facilities as commercial uses and therefore not counted as "housing units" <br />towards the housing cap.ls This has been the practice because these facilities have been <br />generally approved in commercially zoned areas, have characteristics of commercial <br />facilities (e.g., employees, provision of services for the elderly, central dining, payment <br />of commercial impact fees), and generally do not create the same type of impacts on the <br />community as do residential developments. Examples of this include Eden Villa (the <br />assisted living facility on Mohr Avenue) and the City's Parkview Assisted Living Facility <br />(on Valley Ave.). <br />Notwithstanding these factors, the City Council has previously indicated that if <br />the Continuing Life Care (CLC) proposal on Staples Ranch were to be approved, the City <br />may count 240 (of the proposed 636) assisted living units toward the housing cap, based <br />on a formula that considers a number of impacts of such a facility on the community. If <br />the Council, in taking action on the CLC project, were to count the entire number of <br />assisted living units (636) as "housing units" towards the housing cap, then it would <br />further reduce the number of conventional housing units that could be developed <br />elsewhere in the City under the housing cap by 396.16 <br />4.2. Effect of Initiative on Consistency of General Plan and any Specific Plans <br />A General Plan has been called the `constitution' for development within a city. <br />As with any new policies added to a General Plan, these new policies are required by <br />State law to be consistent with the existing policies, programs and elements within the <br />General Plan. To the extent that Initiative's new General Plan policies conflict with <br />policies in Specific Plans, the Specific Plan policies could not be implemented and would <br />need to be revised to be consistent with the new General Plan policies. <br />14 See Government Code §65852.2 (a) (2). <br />15 Even if it were determined that assisted living units are housing units for purposes of the housing cap, <br />previously approved assisted living units would not be counted towards the housing cap, since initiatives <br />(or any other policy or ordinance) are not usually applied retroactively, unless specifically stated. <br />16 As of January 2007, there was a potential for 2,755 units left under the housing cap. Reducing this by <br />240 units for CLC would leave 2,515; reducing it instead by the fu11636 units for CLC would leave 2,119 <br />units. Moreover, any of these numbers would be reduced by the number of building permits that have been <br />issued between January 2007 and now. <br />