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ITEM 4: PUBLIC COMMEP September 16, 2021 Pleasanton Housing Commission Agenda Item 4, Draft Preliminary Update, Housing Element Update Dear Chairman Galvin and Housing Commissioners. Further review of the Staff Report and the Draft Preliminary Report has raised some additional questions. Particularly, the precipitous drop in the portion of Pleasanton residents that work in Pleasanton to a new low of 8% needs some further explanation. This would be helpful to Pleasanton's Commissions and City Council in recommending development sites and housing types. We can learn a lot about reasons for the trends we are seeing through review of population response to housing Pleasanton has built in the past. What does the American Community Survey and other new census tract data tell us? Where do the 8% of households who live and work in Pleasanton currently live? What is the range of their household incomes? How long have they lived in Pleasanton? What size households? What are their ages? For instance, my family settled in Pleasanton in 1988 because buying a house was affordable. Within 15 years we became a live/work household. We would now be classed as both live/work, business owner, and senior citizen. However, we could not afford to buy the house we live in today. I suspect that there are many longer tenure residents like us who are part of the 8%. At the other end of the scale, Pleasanton has added a lot of high density housing around BART. One of these developments includes 15% VLI units. Do the occupants of this relatively new HDR housing work in town, or do they mostly take BART to jobs out of town? Does providing housing close to BART work against the City's environmental need to provide affordable housing opportunities for Pleasanton's essential corporate and service workers? If so, perhaps we should reconsider BART proximate development as the best option for Pleasanton's lower income essential workforce. To meet the City's climate action goals, our priority should be to house Pleasanton's currently commuting workers close to Pleasanton jobs. I hope staff may be able to answer some of these questions tonight, or perhaps in time for future commission and council meetings. I look forward to your discussion of these interesting questions. Best, r3u*, y Dem,� Pleasanton Item 4 - Provided to Housing Commission for the September 16, 2021 Meeting AFTER PACKET DISTRIBUTION 30