2006-09-07 TTAKASE - Laserfiche WebLink

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limiting your clientele only to a particular sector of the community. And I tend to agree with Commissioner McCall in that sense that what is really direly needed over here is like rental units. And how do you increase the stock so that it can become affordable for the general community as well as for the students? And partially, you know, you do that through having a separate agreement under the affordable housing agreement. So I think that if you restrict it relative to a rental, you know, for a minimum of a 20-year period, as with the Suffolk-Puaa project, you know, that might be a little bit more, I would say, palatable than restricting it exclusively to student housing. ‘Cause if the University collapsed for one reason or another, and we would hate to the University collapse, then it becomes a real problem for the owner. ALAMEDA:Any other final questions for our Applicant’s representative before we see if there’s any testimony? Seeing none, you may be seated. There’s no testimony on this matter; and, so, we, I guess we could discuss first before we make a motion. Commissioner Salavea? SALAVEA:If I may, Mr. Chair, can I just make a generic motion to get the discussion open? ALAMEDA:Sure. SALAVEA:In the matter of Dr. Allan Takase Change of Zone application (REZ 06-000044), I move that a favorable recommendation be forwarded to the County Council per the Planning Director’s recommendation. MCCALL:Second. ALAMEDA:Motion made by Commissioner Salavea, seconded by Commissioner McCall. Discussion? Commissioner Salavea? SALAVEA:Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just to, I’m glad the Applicant’s representative made the comment about maybe putting a condition that will keep these units in the rental market for an extended period of time, rather than having it solely for University or student use. And my perspective is that although the need by the University students is great, you do have a downtime during the summer when the units are unoccupied because of school being out of session. And, therefore, either you find the landowner needs to find short-term renters, you know, maybe visiting students from abroad coming to do a summer session here, or something to fill that gap, until the unit can be re-rented out for the following semester. And my, I know my experience with the University has been that during the summer seasons, we’ve really got to, it’s a challenge to fill the unit. So basically the unit sits empty, unless we have large amounts of visiting students. The other part to that, the second part to that, is I think the emphasis for the County is on building the stock of affordable rental units within the community. By scoping it down only to students, we may eliminate people who may have just as high a need as the students and could benefit from staying in the units for prolong periods, I mean, you know, straight five months until, or five years until the person gets on their feet. They go to classes not in a sense of a EXHIBIT A 6