A. By the end of April of each year, the city council shall meet to consider setting the annual allocation pool, and, if desired, the secondary allocation pool, to estimate the limits on projected development activity for the succeeding two years; and to grant allocations for the coming calendar year and reservations for the year following. The annual allocation pool may be less than, equal to or greater than the total number of allocations requested for that year on the notice of intent to develop forms. However, the annual allocation pool must not exceed limits set by the general plan: an average of five hundred units per year, no more than one thousand units in any one year, and no more than one thousand five hundred units over three consecutive years. Allocations in the secondary pool shall count against the year in which they were originally set in an annual pool.

The granting of allocations to a specific project is not a commitment in any way that the council will eventually approve the project, nor is it a commitment by council to grant additional allotments to said project in future years (unless reservations have been granted pursuant to this chapter). Projects receiving allocations and no reservations must be designed to be constructed as a complete unit with no requirement that future allotments be granted to complete the project.

B. In the event anticipated development for a given year will exceed the established allocation pool, the city council may exercise one or more of the following options:

C. The city council may annually borrow from future years allotment capacity a minimum of forty-five units per year to accommodate projects on parcels of less than five acres (unless otherwise exempted as senior or lower income housing). These forty-five units shall be added to the annual allocation pool set by the city council. The number of units borrowed for projects of this type may be annually adjusted higher by the city council based on information provided by the department of community development.

D. Should allocation requests fall short of available annual allocations, the city council may determine that a supplementary allocation can be made. In making that determination, the council shall direct staff to send out notice of intent to develop forms immediately, to be returned by prospective developers by May 15th. The supplementary allocation will be made by May 31st or the earliest available council meeting.

E. The city council shall grant allocations and reservations by resolution.

F. Any portion of the annual allocation pool left unallocated (i.e., allocations not granted to specific projects through either the primary allocations process or the supplementary allocation process) shall not be carried over and added to the total allocations available in the next succeeding calendar year, except that such allocations may be added to future secondary allocation pools for special projects.

G. Should any project with allotments fail to either have its application deemed complete or achieve the necessary approvals within the time frames set forth in Sections 17.26.070(F) and (G), those allotments shall be forfeited and may be returned to the pool of available allotments for the next allocation period or to the secondary allocation pool.

H. Allotments borrowed to accommodate projects of five acres or less but left unallocated may be returned to the pool of available allotments for the next allocation period or to the secondary allocation pool.

I. The city council, when establishing the annual allocation pool, as described under Section 17.26.060, A, of this chapter, may establish an annual allocation pool of less than five hundred for any given year based on findings of fact demonstrating a detrimental impact with respect to the general plan or to the health, safety and welfare of the citizens of Petaluma.

The city council shall adopt findings of fact when awarding part or none of the requested allocations to a specific proposed project. Said findings of fact shall be based on the proposed projects ability to meet the annual development objectives and general plan policies.