12 ATTACHMENT 6 - Laserfiche WebLink

Commissioner O'Connor stated that he had a question of staff before the Commission starts the Discussion Points. He noted that there were a lot of comments tonight about this affordability that nobody wants in their backyard. He indicated that Mr. Paxson started to explain it, and he thinks it would be helpful if staff could either re-explain or he could walk through his understanding and staff could correct him. He stated that with the lawsuit and asked what it meant, what the City had to rezone, and what that means. He asked what affordability means if the City has to build affordable, and if it will actually be low-cost housing. Chair Pearce added that she would like staff to also address why there is a mix of apartments and why they cannot all be one-bedroom apartments. Mr. Dolan stated that the City did get in trouble with the State for not providing the City's fair share of the regional need for affordable housing, in general. He explained that for cities the size of Pleasanton, the city gets this assignment every eight years or so, and the city will have to provide the zoning for it, although the State does not necessarily dictate exactly what the rents will be but it does say that it will assume the city is meeting its obligations if it provides zoning at 30 units per acre for the two categories of very-low income and low-income:. He continued that the city's obligation is to zone for that, and two years ago, Pleasanton went through the two-year process of the Housing Element Update, and after many, many meetings and lots of discussions, the City selected the sites, and this site happened to be one of them. With respect to how that affects this particular project, Mr. Dolan stated that the zoning is set at 30 units per acre, and the develop has an obligation to the City or the City will be talking to them about providing some affordable units, based on Pleasanton's own, self-created, Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance (IZO). He added that the City collectively decided that when it does development, it wants to have a certain percentage offered at a lower rent, and that is something that every development has an obligation to do, including this one. He noted that this project has not yet begun the dialogue for it Housing Agreement, but the IZO, portions of which have been challenged in court, really becomes a negotiation. He indicated that the City's current goal is to have 15-percent affordable, and that can be at various levels of subsidy. He explained that there are really three levels: very-low-, low-, and moderate-income, and the 15 percent is split between those various levels. He then referred to Ms. Stern for information on the rent. Ms. Stern stated that the median income for the area is around $80,000, and the very-low income level would be about 50 percent of that or around $40,000; the rental rates would be about 30 percent of the income level. Mr. Dolan stated that staff will provide more data on that as the project comes forward. With respect to the terms of the unit sizes, he indicated that the other thing that the City has to do as part of the process is that when the City had the State review and certify its Housing Element, the City had to do a housing needs analysis and determine what is not being provided to the community. He noted that this is a fairly extensive analysis, EXCERPT: PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES, September 11, 2013 Page 16 of 24