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SPR No. 2022-03, TTM No. 2022-02, and DBA No. 2022-02 – Cabrillo Crossing June 27, 2022 Page 4 2 7 4 1 is limited in its ability to deny the requested concessions and is preempted from denying the Density Bonus Agreement application. 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. The Metro East Mixed Use overlay district was modified and expanded in 2018 to include areas along East First Street between Grand Avenue and the Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway. Since its adoption, the district has resulted in four mixed-use communities built or under construction, with two more entitled and unbuilt. 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 affordable or mixed-income 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 Site Plan Review 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 publicly accessible open space standard requested by the applicant indicated in this report. 6/27/2022 Planning Commission 2 –4