60A - DENSITY BONUS AFFORD HOUSING

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EXHIBIT 2 SPR No. 2017-09/DBA No. 2017-02 May 21, 2018 Page 4 preempted from denying the Density Bonus Agreement application. Although the City has analyzed the project and has identified several areas of concern, the conditions of approval proposed for the project are intended to address any of the project's potential impacts. Background The Metro East Mixed Use overlay district was adopted in 2007 as a result of interest in developing mixed -use residential and commercial projects in its project area. The regulating plan, which establishes land uses and development standards, allows a variety of housing and commercial projects, including mixed -use residential communities, live/work units, hotels, and offices. Since its adoption, one mixed -use project at 1901 East First Street has been constructed and is occupied. Another affordable rental residential project by the same developer at 2222 East First Street was entitled in September 2017, and a market -rate mixed -use development at 200 North Cabrillo Park Drive is currently entitled. The California Density Bonus law allows developers proposing five or more residential units to seek increases in base density for providing on -site housing units in exchange for providing affordable units on site. To help make constructing on -site affordable units feasible, the law allows developers to seek up to three incentives/concessions and an unlimited number of waivers, which are essentially variances from development standards that would help the project be built without significant burden and without detriment to public health. The first version of the Density Bonus Law was adopted in 1979 and has since been amended at various times. Recent revisions allow affordable housing developers to request incentives/concessions and/or waivers for 100-percent affordable developments, even if they do not require a numerical density bonus. Moreover, in early 2017, the law was amended to restrict the ability of local jurisdictions to require studies to 'justify' the density bonus and requested incentives/waivers and places the onus on local jurisdictions to prove that the incentives/concessions or waivers are not financially warranted. Analysis of the Issues Section 8 of the MEMU regulating plan, Implementation, requires the Planning Commission to review an application for development subject to the provisions of the overlay district. Upon review of the required Site Plan Review (SPR) application, the Planning Commission may take the following actions: approve, approve with conditions, or deny the SPR. The City's Development Review Committee has reviewed the project and finds that it is incompliance with the majority of development standards contained within the MEMU regulating plan, with the exception of the four development standard deviations requested by the applicant indicated in this report. In addition, Section 41-1607 requires an application for a density bonus agreement containing "deviations" (incentives/concessions and/or waivers) to be approved by the Planning Commission. The following subsections analyze the applicant's request for both the Site Plan Review and the Density Bonus Agreement applications. Table 4: Analysis of the Requested Incentives/Concessions (3) and Waiver (1) Standard I Analysis 60A-50