pages: PlanningBoard/2021-07-12.pdf, 14
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PlanningBoard | 2021-07-12 | 14 | and opportunities. She said she had a basis for the Secretary of the Interior's Standards. She also volunteered to do page turns since final revisions are very tedious. She asked about a Housing Working Group that was going to work on the Housing Element and wanted an update on that. Director Thomas said there was a Housing Working Group set up with President Teague and Board Members Cisneros and Hom and they had a meeting coming up. He discussed how the staff had been struggling with it since they had too many balls in the air. He added that on July 6th the City Council did not take a lot of action but it was an important meeting and had set the stage. He discussed the daunting task to get the Housing Element adopted in the City of Alameda on time. Board Member Curtis had read through all the revisions and Mr. Buckley's comments and aside from the Housing Element, he thought Mr. Buckley made a lot of good points, points he would have made. He mainly liked comments about the building and construction regulations. Any of these regulations that convert and cause the owner to convert on an existing building from electricity to gas should not be an ordinance and that's because it's detrimental to young people who are trying to make ends meet and to older people who are on fixed incomes. He wanted to see that modified to let the owner decide because the city shouldn't ask someone to go into debt even if they offer assistance. He also discussed something that got to him every time, how the Fair Housing Act was the catalyst for Measure A, that was not true. The catalyst for Measure A was Ron Cowan building 9600 units on Bay Farm Island originally, but it went to 3200 units after people complained. He recommended that the Housing Element should have a preempt that should direct the City Attorney if the zoning is legal for the Harbor Bay Club. He believed there was still a lot of work that needed to be done. Board Member Hom addressed what Director Thomas said about density, he was in the same mind frame as Director Thomas. He appreciated how they addressed the terms about mimicking historic architecture. He also noticed that they had gotten technical input on the language around sea-level rise but those policies had gotten more complicated by referencing elevations that he did not understand. He thought that could use a spotlight to explain what that new information meant. He thought what they had done for the revisions of the land use definitions was very good. He really agreed with taking out the density discussion from the Land Use Element and deferring it to the Housing Element, he thought that was a good approach. He was against deferring adopting the General Plan, the plan was about more than just housing. He believed the plan was continuing to improve and was moving in a very positive direction. For Harbor Bay, he didn't see that the proposed land use designation was in any way pushing for eliminating the health club. He agreed that it was a very important community amenity and discussed more what the zoning meant. Board Member Cisneros agreed this was an evergreen document and needed to be flexible. She couldn't agree more with Board Member Hom's comment about Harbor Bay, just because it was zoned for something it would be other factors that decided what got built there. She was excited about some of the changes. She advocated changing the theme from character to balance and discussed the desire to make this a more inclusive community. She addressed what they mean to her and gave examples of better wording in sections. She wanted to see the definition of Affordable Housing made broader. For the Approved Planning Board Minutes Page 14 of 18 July 12, 2021 | PlanningBoard/2021-07-12.pdf |