Los Altos Municipal Code Art. 1 Inclusionary Housing Requirements

This article provides the requirements and provisions for the production of affordable housing. As used in this article, the following terms have the following meanings unless otherwise apparent from the context:

A.

"Affordable housing unit" means a for-sale or rental dwelling unit affordable to households with extremely low, very low, low, or moderate incomes as published periodically by HCD for households in Santa Clara County or equivalent as approved by the community development director. Calculations for the required affordable housing resulting in fractional units shall be rounded up to the next whole number.

B.

"Dwelling unit" means a dwelling designated and intended for occupancy by a household.

C.

"HCD" means the California Department of Housing and Community Development or any successor agency.

D.

"Income, very low, low or moderate" means an annual income of a household that does not exceed the amounts designated for each income category as determined by HCD.

E.

"Multiple-family residential project" means a residential project exceeding four units or a mixed-use project.

F.

"Project" means the entire parcel of real property, including all structures thereon, all or part of which is intended to be rented or purchased for residential purposes.

(Ord. No. 09-336, § 1, 4-28-2009; Ord. No. 2018-449, § 1, 9-25-2018; Ord. No. 2022-485, § 3, 3-8-2022)

All multiple-family residential projects that create five or more new dwelling units shall provide affordable housing as follows:

A.

For projects with five to nine units, affordable housing units shall be provided as follows:

Fifteen (15) percent of the total units shall be designated as affordable, rental or ownership, at the moderate-, low- or very-low income level.

As an alternative to providing the required affordable housing units, payment of an in-lieu fee is permitted.

B.

For projects with ten (10) or more units, affordable housing units shall be provided as follows:

Rental units. Twenty (20) percent designated as affordable at the low income level or fifteen (15) percent designated as affordable at the very low income level.

Ownership units. Fifteen (15) percent of total units shall be designated as affordable housing units. A majority of the affordable housing units shall be designated as affordable at the moderate-income level. The remaining affordable housing units shall be designated as affordable at the low- and/or very-low income level.

C.

Nothing in this section is intended to prohibit a multiple-family residential project from providing additional affordable housing units beyond the minimum number of affordable units required at each income level.

D.

As used in paragraph 2 of subdivision (B) of this section, the term "majority" shall have the following meaning.

If fifty (50) percent of the total affordable housing units required by subdivision (B) results in a number with a fractional remainder, then "majority" means fifty (50) percent of the total affordable housing units rounded up to the nearest whole number.

If fifty (50) percent of the total affordable housing units required by subdivision (B) results in a whole number without a fractional remainder, then "majority" means fifty (50) percent of the total affordable housing units plus one unit.

(Ord. No. 09-336, § 1, 4-28-2009; Ord. No. 2018-449, § 1, 9-25-2018; Ord. No. 2022-485, § 3, 3-8-2022)

Applicable housing development projects shall be subject to the following standards:

A.

Calculations for the required affordable housing resulting in fractional units shall be rounded up to the next whole number.

B.

The action that approves a project shall contain sufficient conditions to ensure compliance with the provisions of this chapter.

C.

Unless otherwise approved by the city council, all affordable units in a project shall be constructed concurrently with market rate units, shall be dispersed throughout the project, and shall not be significantly distinguishable by size, design, construction or materials.

D.

As an alternative to providing the affordable housing units required by this chapter, payment of an in-lieu fee may be approved by the city council.

E.

The requirement to provide affordable housing may be waived, adjusted or reduced by the city council if the developer can demonstrate, based on substantial evidence, that providing on-site affordable housing units will be financially infeasible.

(Ord. No. 09-336, § 1, 4-28-2009; Ord. No. 2018-449, § 1, 9-25-2018; Ord. No. 2022-485, § 3, 3-8-2022)