Fancy Suburb Finally Agrees to Cheap Living

Pleasanton is getting rid of its voter-approved cap on housing developments as part of a settlement with an affordable housing advocacy group.
     
After a four-year legal battle, the city council on Tuesday voted 4-0 to finalize the agreement with Urban Habitat, which claimed the cap prevented Pleasanton from providing its share of affordable housing. State Attorney General Jerry Brown joined the group's lawsuit in 2009.
     
Voters had approved the housing cap in 1996, limiting the number of units in Pleasanton to 29,000.
     
Under the settlement, the city will pay about $2 million to cover the group's attorney fees and remove all references to the cap from city records.
     
The city also agreed to move ahead with plans to construct 2,524 affordable homes and adopt a climate-action plan.