Item 23 - Density Bonus Agreement No. 2023-01: 4th and Grand (1212 E. Fourth Street)

Home Browse Search

Ali Pezeshkpour, Planning Manager Page 3 Phase 3: Project Consistency Determination to Project Consideration Nine days after the Project was deemed consistent by operation of law, on January 18, 2022, the City sent the applicant its first letter regarding the Project. The letter confirmed the application submittal date of November 18, 2022 and provided a list of required modifications to the design of the Project. It is apparent from the length and level of detail in the letter that its purpose was related to Project consistency and not application completeness. Throughout the following year, the applicant continued to revise the Project while periodically receiving inconsistency letters from the City. The most recent letter from the City to the applicant, dated March 15, 2023, states that the project "has met the requirements and conditions of the City's Development Review (DRC) to complete the Development Project Review process" — except for the singular issue of compliance with the AHOCO. Santa Ana's Affordable Housing Opportunity and Creation Ordinance (AHOCO) HCD understands that the AHOCO was formerly known as the Housing Opportunity Ordinance (HOO), which was adopted in 2011 and later amended in 2015, 2020, and 2022. The HOO, as amended in 2020, applied to "any new residential project comprised of twenty (20) or more residential lots or residential units" (NS-2994, Sec. 41-1902). As of April 19, 2022, the newly adopted AHOCO became applicable to "any new project comprised of five or more residential lots or residential units" (Ord. No. NS-3019, Sec. 41-1902). Relative to the State Density Bonus Law, the City's AHOCO requires more affordable units, and more deeply affordable units, than the minimums specified in the SDBL (Gov. Code, § 65915, sub. (b)). While HCD recognizes the City's efforts for a more robust inclusionary zoning ordinance, due to the Project being deemed consistent (under operation of law) on January 9, 2021, the Project is not subject to the AHOCO. The Project is only subject to the requirements in effect on January 9, 2021. State Density Bonus Law At the time the application was initially submitted on November 10, 2021, the Project design included 16 units, including four bonus units. The applicant sought to use a SDBL concession to reduce or eliminate a requirement that "Multi -Family Dwellings" be located "only on second or upper floors, or behind retail or service ground floor use." 3 The City informed the applicant in a letter dated January 18, 2022 that "[t]he Density Bonus Law's provisions do not allow an applicant to request a waiver for land uses, such as the commercial/mixed-use requirement for a project." This is an overly broad interpretation. The SDBL contains no language creating a distinction between 3 Transit Zoning Code (TZC), Section 41-2007, Table 2A — Use Standards, Footnote 1.