75B - PH - ZONING ORDN AMENDMENT

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Zoning Ordinance Amendment No. 2011-01 September 26, 2011 Page 3 measures, which must be submitted to the State Department of Housing and Community Development. Implementation Measure No. 25 of the Housing Element lists a number of Affordable Housing Incentives, including the potential for the establishment of an inclusionary housing ordinance in order to create new affordable housing. Inclusionary housing ordinances are tools used by cities to ensure that a certain percentage of new housing development is available at affordable levels. This requirement can generally be met through the inclusion of such units within the project itself, rehabilitation or construction of units off site, or through the payment of an in-lieu fee. The units have restricted covenants to ensure that they remain affordable over time. Based on a report by the Non-Profit Housing Association, as of 2007 nearly one-third of California jurisdictions had adopted inclusionary housing policies. At the time that the Housing Element was drafted it was recommended that the feasibility of an inclusionary housing ordinance should be studied and implemented within the 2006-2014 framework. State law requires that when new housing is constructed within redevelopment project areas there must also be affordable housing constructed that equals 15 percent of the total number of units constructed within the project area (Health and Safety Code, Section 33413). Due to the fact that significant areas within the Transit Zoning Code formerly zoned as Industrial now have the ability to convert to mixed-use residential development at the property owners' discretion, the potential exists for a substantial number of new units to be constructed within these Overlay Zone areas. As the majority of these areas are located within redevelopment project areas (Central City, Inter City, North Harbor, Bristol and South Main) new residential development would trigger the requirement for new affordable housing development pursuant to state law. If affordable units are not included within the projects themselves, or built by the applicant on another site, the Redevelopment Agency would become responsible for funding and constructing such housing. It is therefore necessary to ensure that the 15 percent affordability requirement be captured within the new development themselves and the Housing Opportunity Ordinance would enable the City to meet this mandate. On June 7, 2010, several months after the adoption of the Housing Element, the City Council adopted the Transit Zoning Code. As part of this action the City Council directed staff to begin a process to draft an inclusionary housing ordinance for those properties within the M1 and M2 Industrial Overlay Zones of the Transit Zoning Code. This direction was given, in part, to address the community's concerns about the provision of affordable housing within re-zoned areas of the Transit Zoning Code, as well as to implement the City's Housing Element and address State Redevelopment Law. Following the adoption of the Transit Zoning Code the City was awarded a Compass Blueprint Grant from the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) to study new development opportunities for the Harbor Boulevard Corridor that would improve access to housing served by transit, as well as to further various state and regional sustainability goals. This project also serves to further the Housing Element implementation measure to re-zone 75B-5