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General Plan Amendment No. 2009-O1 September 28, 2009 Page 3 • Adequacy of Sites for Lower Income Households. To provide adequate sites to meet the unmet need for affordable housing, Program 17 in the Draft Element identifies the creation of a new General Plan land use designation and zoning district to achieve a minimum range of 25 to 35 dwelling units per acre (average of 30 units per acre). This Program would entail amending a minimum of 33 of the total 116 acres identified in the inventory of "Potential Housing Sites" to a land use designation that facilitates an average of 30 dwelling units. A program to create residential/mixed use multi-family development standards is also included, as well as incentive programs to promote the production of affordable housing. • Homeless and Transitional Housing. With the adoption of Senate Bill 2, state law requires that all jurisdictions identify potential sites where emergency shelters can be located as by- right, permitted uses to serve local needs. The law also states that transitional and supportive housing are to be permitted in the same zoning district as other like residential uses. The revised Draft Element identifies a program to evaluate the Light Industrial (M-1) zoning district and select commercial districts to identify appropriate areas and locations where emergency shelters can be developed without discretionary approvals to accommodate Santa Ana's homeless population. • Housing Preservation. The preservation of existing affordable housing stock has been an ongoing priority for the City of Santa Ana. Under present housing law, there is limited opportunity for the City's housing rehabilitation projects to be credited toward our Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) allocation for new construction. The Draft Element identifies 154 apartment units that were converted from non-affordable to affordable, of which 26 units presently qualify for the RHNA construction credit. The Element also identifies a program to advocate for legislative change to allow greater flexibility in satisfying the regional housing needs' goals through housing preservation and conversion of apartments from market rate to income restricted affordable units. Public Review Following the public outreach, that included community workshops, stakeholder focus groups, Study Sessions with Commissions, and Visioning Study Sessions with the City Council, the City prepared the preliminary 75B-5