Local News

PLEASANTON (BCN) ― State Attorney General Jerry Brown announced Wednesday he is joining a lawsuit that contends the city of Pleasanton should remove a limit on new housing in the city that he called "draconian and illegal."

The motion, filed in Alameda County Superior Court, would force Pleasanton to lift Measure GG, a 1996 measure approved by voters that limits the number of total housing units in the city at 29,000.

The state's regional housing needs assessment requires Pleasanton to provide 3,277 additional houses, apartments or condominiums by 2014, but the cap only allows for 2,000 more to be built, according to the attorney general's office.

Brown said the lack of an adequate number of houses in the city is a significant cause of traffic congestion, pollution, and urban sprawl in the area.

"Pleasanton's draconian and illegal limit on new housing forces people to commute long distances, adding to the bumper to bumper traffic along (highways) 580 and 680 and increasing dangerous air pollution," Brown said in a statement.

"It's time for Pleasanton to balance its housing and its jobs and take full advantage of its underutilized land and proximity to BART," Brown said.

In April, the city released its general plan update, which would call for the creation of 45,000 additional jobs by 2025 while retaining the housing limit, according to the attorney general's office.

The lawsuit contends that the cap violates state law, saying that the Legislature has declared that the availability of housing is a matter of "vital statewide importance," yet many workers are unable to find affordable housing within Pleasanton.

A 2005 study by the Association of Bay Area Governments found that 79 percent of the 58,000 employees working in Pleasanton lived outside the city, and that their commutes can take two hours per day or more.

The housing shortage and long commutes come despite what the attorney general's office said was ample land for development, including property adjacent to the Pleasanton BART station.

The city's updated general plan makes note of those problems in the region.
"A consequence of the imbalance between income and the affordability of housing is the increasing number of Tri-Valley workers who live in east Contra Costa County and in San Joaquin County resulting in long commutes to work via the congested freeway system," the report said.

However, the updated plan contends that Pleasanton has helped contribute to affordable housing by collaborating with regional entities on issues related to housing, including making a monetary and staff contribution to the Tri-Valley Affordable Housing Committee.

Pleasanton City Attorney Michael Roush said, "There is plenty of room under the housing cap for houses to be built," and that the city does commonly not refuse proposals for development.

Cliff Rechtschaffen, a special assistant to the attorney general's office, said the state's Department of Housing and Community Development brought the case of Pleasanton to the attorney general's office after finding them out of compliance with their housing element requirements.

Rechtschaffen said the goal of the lawsuit, which was initially filed by the nonprofit group Public Advocates in October 2006, is to have the housing cap modified or repealed.

"The voters adopted it, but they can't adopt something that isn't lawful," he said.

However, Roush said the city is motioning to dismiss the complaint and that "the housing cap is a valid exercise of the land use."

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