RES 96088 - Laserfiche WebLink

APPENDIX E CONSTRAINTS ON HOUSING DEVELOPMENT IN PLEASANTON A. Introduction California law states that the housing element of general plans must include an analysis of constraints on housing development. This analysis must include a discussion of governmental constraints, including land use controls, building codes and enforcement, on-and off-site improvements, fees and exactions, processing and permit procedures, and constraints related to the local infrastructure of services and facilities. It must also discuss non-governmental constraints. Market constraints on housing, the most prominent non-governmental constraint, can be approached by examining the major factors contributing to the sale price or rental cost of housing including construction costs and financing. B. Governmental Constraints 1. Growth Management Program The growth of Pleasanton's housing stock has fluctuated greatly over the course of the City's development, as shown in Housing Element Table IV-1. The construction of several thousand housing units during the early 1970's led to an overburdened sewage treatment system and a major slowdown of housing growth during the late 1970's. The wide fluctuations resulted in the City adopting a Growth Management Program (GMP) in 1978 which controlled the City's residential growth rate according to sewage capacity and air quality restraints. Since the Growth Management Program was adopted, the City has made substantial progress in reducing these constraints and has modified its Growth Management procedures accordingly. The City has maintained its Growth Management Program in order to phase residential growth according to the availability of infrastructure, especially roadways and sewage capacity, and to manage the supply of buildable residential sites to meet continued future demand. The City's current Growth Management Program (Appendix F) contains components which regulate the rate and type of residential development within the City limits. The City now regulates the number of housing units which can be approved each year using a range of between 0 and 750 units annually. However, this is expected to reduce in approximately the year 1999 to 350 annually thereafter. This range is considered by the City to be more than sufficient to meet the City's share of regional housing needs. The yearly allocation made within that range is based on an assessment of infrastructure (e.g., sewer), services (e.g., police), employment growth, and housing need as evaluated in a periodic Growth Management report.