SR-9-B (22)
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Council Meeting: 06/09/92 Santa Monica, California
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To: Mayor and city Council Members
From: City staff
subject: Recommendation to Direct City Attorney to Draft
Amendments to Ordinance 1615 to Change the Calculation of
Required On-site Low and Moderate Income Units
INTRODUCTION
This report recommends that the City council direct the city
Attorney to draft an amendment to Ordinance 1615 (Proposition R) to
change the calculation of required on-site low and moderate income
units. The proposed adjustment's sole impact would be to require
that a five-unit development would need to provide only one low
income unit, instead of one low and one moderate income unit.
BACKGROUND
At the December 3, 1991 meeting of the City Council, the City
Attorney was instructed to prepare a draft ordinance implementing
Proposition R. The draft ordinance and Information Item, including
a section by section analysis, was completed by the City Attorney
and released to the public on January 14, 1992. On March 3, 1992
the city Council adopted the draft ordinance as Ordinance 1615. In
addition to passing the implementing ordinance, the Council
requested the staff to review the question of rounding, with
respect to the calculation of the number of on-site units, and to
return with alternative approaches. 9-.8
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DISCUSSION
A concern has been raised regarding the calculation of units
required to be built on-site to meet the inclusionary unit
obligation that is identified in section 9425 of Ordinance 1615.
The section states that l1any decimal fraction of 0.3 or more shall
be rounded up to the nearest whole numberl1. The effect of this
calculation is to require a four-unit development to provide one
low-income unit (4 x .3 = 1.2 rounded to 1 unit), and a five-unit
development to provide one low income unit and one moderate income
unit (5 x .3 = 1.5 rounded to 2 units).
Under current zoning, the standard R2 zoned multifamily lot
allows the development of five (5) units. It appears unlikely,
given the calculation above, that a developer would ever elect to
build five units instead of four units, since the incremental unit
must be deed restricted, as a moderate income unit. Since the most
common size of development has been five units, the effect for the
City is a reduction in the potential number of new units
constructed. Also, since four rather than five units would
presumably be the density of choice, the effect of the current
Ordinance would be to encourage larger, more expensive units.
staff proposes that the council direct the City Attorney to
draft an amendment to Ordinance 1615 which makes an adjustment
solely for five-unit projects. The result of this revision should
be that five-unit developments, where on-site affordable units are
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required, would need provide only one (1) low income unit.
The following chart serves to illustrate the effect of the proposal
recommended by staff. All inclusionary unit responsibilities
represented in the chart result from the current method of rounding
as stated in Section 9425(a), with the exception of the five-unit
project, which reflects the impact of the proposed calculation
method.
Number of Low Income Moderate Income
Units Built Units Units
2 1 0
3 1 0
4 1 0
5 1 0
6 1 1
7 1 1
8 2 1
9 2 1
10 2 1
11 2 2
12 2 2
13 2 2
14 2 2
15 3 2
16 3 2
17 3 2
18 3 3
19 3 3
20 3 3
FINANCIAL/BUDGETARY IMPACT
The proposed action by Council will have no budgetary impact at
this time.
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RECOMMENDATION
It is recommended that the city council direct the City Attorney to
draft an amendment to Ordinance 1615, section 9425(a), to require
that a five-unit project needs to provide only one (1) on-site low
income unit.
Prepared by: Barbara Stinchfield, Acting Director
Chuck Elsesser, Housing Program Manager
Jim Kemper, senior Development Analyst
Community Development Department
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