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Land Costs The City does not have ownership of any significant parcels of land at the present time. Therefore, the market cost of land is posing an ongoing 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." The 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. The adoption of an Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance in late 2000, accompanied by an updated General Plan Housing Element (April 2003), have yielded 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 Housing 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 Housing 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 locals funds annually to East Bay Housing Organizations (EBHO) to implement an ongoing program aimed at improving residents' perceptions and understanding of affordable housing. The 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. Pleasanton collaborated with its neighbor cities in the Tri- Valley to hold a tour of affordable housing developments and issues in February 2009. In conjunction with other Tri- Valley cities, the City of Pleasanton will work with EBHO in FY 2010 in activities related to Affordable Housing Week, held annually in May. This will include media presentations, affordable housing tours, and other activities focusing specifically on affordable housing efforts past, present, and future in the Tri- Valley area. As the focus of Affordable Housing Week three years ago, the City worked with other Tri- Valley jurisdictions to highlight the Action Plan FY10 City of Pleasanton Page 33