39A - DENSITY APP - 2034 AND 2038 N BUSH ST

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DBA 2010-02 December 13, 2010 Page 4 and safety, or the physical environment, or on specified historic properties, and for which there is no feasible way of mitigating or avoiding the impact without rendering the project unaffordable to low and moderate income households. The City further supported the provisions of the State Density Bonus Law through the adoption of policies contained within the 2006-2014 Housing Element. In particular, Housing Program No. 25 of the Housing Implementation Summary states that the City will implement the density bonus ordinance to assist in the development of extremely low, very low, and low income rental units, and moderate income condos, and senior housing. Density Bonus Implementation of the Proposed Proiect Pursuant to SAMC 14-1600 et seq., developers wishing to pursue deviations from the City's established densities and development standards must enter into a Density Bonus Agreement with the City. The code also states that, if the proposed Density Bonus Agreement includes requests for deviations from zoning and development standards, that those deviations must first be approved by the Planning Commission prior to consideration of the Agreement by the City Council. The project applicant is requesting deviations from the City's zoning and development standards, as further detailed in this staff report. The Density Bonus Agreement (Exhibit 8) details the requested deviations. This Agreement, along with the Planning Commission's recommendation regarding the requested deviations, will be considered by the City Council. The Developer is seeking a density bonus from the maximum density permitted by the R2 zone and deviations from the minimum lot size and the front yard setback. Density Bonus From Maximum Density Both the State Density Bonus Law and the SAMC state that the law only applies to projects of five or more units. The proposed project meets this standard. There is a difference between the State law and the SAMC regarding the total number of units which may be constructed in excess of adopted densities. In the case of the SAMC, the development shall be permitted a density bonus of the amount of units requested by the applicant, up to a total project dwelling unit count of 125 percent. Under State law, the minimum bonus for projects providing 20 percent of the units to lower income households is 35 percent. Because the City's existing Density Bonus Law has not been amended to comply with the most current State Density Bonus Law and because the SAMC states that it shall be in compliance with the State law "as it may be amended from time to time," the provisions of the State law will take precedence in this case. The State law and the SAMC state that "density bonus" means a density increase over the otherwise maximum allowable residential density under the applicable zoning ordinance and land use element of the general plan. The maximum density allowed by the City's zoning and General Plan land use designations for this property is inconsistent. The following table details number of dwellings allowed and the percentage increases as they pertain to this project. 39A-6