Item 28 - Housing Ad Hoc Committee Progress Report Regarding The Housing Opportunity Ordinance

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Planning and Building Agency www.santa-ana.org/pba Item # 28 City of Santa Ana 20 Civic Center Plaza, Santa Ana, CA 92701 Staff Report July 6, 2021 TOPIC: Housing Ad Hoc Committee Progress Report and Recommendations Regarding the Housing Opportunity Ordinance AGENDA TITLE: Housing Ad Hoc Committee Progress Report and Recommendations Regarding the Housing Opportunity Ordinance RECOMMENDED ACTION Receive the progress report from the Housing Ad Hoc Committee, discuss the recommendations, and provide direction to staff. BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION At the direction of the Mayor and City Council, the Housing Ad Hoc Committee was formed on March 2, 2021. Committee members consist of Mayor Sarmiento and Councilmembers Lopez and Phan. The Committee convened its first meeting on March 22, 2021 and has since conducted three additional meetings to discuss various housing issues. The first set of recommendations from the Committee are related to the Housing Opportunity Ordinance. Ad Hoc Review of the Housing Opportunity Ordinance The HOO was originally adopted in November 2011 to implement the City’s Housing Element goal to provide affordable housing within the City. In October 2015, the HOO was amended to make the inclusionary housing requirements more predictable for housing developers and to incentivize more affordable housing production on-site in conjunction with new market rate housing development. Some examples of the ordinance changes included simplifying the complex in-lieu fee calculation and creating additional incentives to allow developers the option of providing inclusionary housing units either on or off-site. In September 2020, the HOO was amended again to decrease the in-lieu fee amount for all projects from $15 to $5 per square foot, change the trigger of the HOO, and expand the eligible uses of in-lieu fees collected by the City.