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Pleasanton Releases Data Showing “Housing Cap” Prevents
Achievement of State Housing Goal, Confirming Lawsuit Allegations
Pleasanton, CA – In a new staff report, the City of Pleasanton has disclosed data
showing that its 29,000unit, voterapproved “Housing Cap” may bar it from meeting its
“fair share” of the Bay Area’s housing need. In response to this disclosure, public interest
groups who have filed a legal challenge to the Cap requested documentation from the
city.
The groups, Public Advocates Inc., and Urban Habitat, have alleged in a pending legal
challenge that the Housing Cap does not leave enough room for the city to meet its
share of the regional housing need, as required by California law. Richard A.
Marcantonio, a managing attorney at Public Advocates which represents the plaintiffs in
the lawsuit, said his group has asked the city for public records that will disclose the full
extent of the conflict between the Cap and the city’s obligations under State law.
“Two things are at stake here,” Marcantonio said. “First, the city’s disclosure appears to
confirm that the Housing Cap is already in violation of State law. Second, as the city
prepares to adopt a new longterm General Plan, the Cap will pose a clear barrier to
meeting the need for several thousand additional housing units in the next few years.”
Approved by Pleasanton voters in 1996, the Housing Cap restricts residential
development to 29,000 units. The new staff report, issued in connection with tomorrow’s
City Council meeting, states that Pleasanton already had 26,245 units as of January 1,
2007, leaving room for only 2,755 more units under the 29,000unit Cap.
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This data appears to confirm that the Cap makes it impossible for the city to achieve the
unmet portion of its assigned share of the housing need. State law requires each
California city to accommodate its “fair share” of the region’s need for new housing.
Pleasanton’s unmet portion of its 1999 share stood at 2,889 units as of April 2006—
more than the 2,755 units that can be accommodated under the Cap.
The city, however, stated in papers it filed in court early this year that “the units
remaining under the Housing Cap are sufficient to satisfy the city’s housing needs during
the current planning period.”
For the new “planning period” that began last month and continues until 2014,
Pleasanton has been allocated an additional regional share of 3,277 housing units. The
city must plan to meet these housing needs, which include over 1,800 units affordable to
families with verylow or low incomes.
The lawsuit, filed against the city by the Urban Habitat Program and Sandra De Gregorio
last October, is currently pending before the California Court of Appeal.
The City Council will meet tomorrow, Tuesday, August 21, to review and consider the
draft Land Use Element, the portion of the General Plan that contains the Housing Cap.
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