Inclusionary Housing Ordinance – City of San Jose

Inclusionary Zoning (IZ), also known as Inclusionary Housing requires developers to make a percentage of housing units in new residential developments available to low and moderate income households.

On November 10, 2008 the San Jose City Council voted to move forward with plans to impose a city-wide “inclusionary housing” requirement for all future residential housing projects to be built in the city. This past Friday (11/14/08) Leslye Krutko, the City’s Director of Housing provided the first public release of the city’s proposed comprehensive Citywide Inclusionary Housing Ordinance. The proposed Citywide Inclusionary Housing Ordinance is scheduled to be heard by the City Council on December 9th.

Key components contained in the proposed Ordinance include:

• Geographic Coverage of Ordinance:
  Entire City of San Jose
• Inclusionary Requirements
  Rental – 20% or 15% (depending on level of subsidy/affordability required)
  Home Ownership – 20% or 15% of development (depending on level of subsidy/affordability required
• Exemptions
  Projects with 10 or fewer dwelling units
• Implementation Date
  30 days after final adoption but no later than January 1, 2010.
  First day of the month following the first 12 month consecutive period for which permits for 2,000 units have been issued.
• Grandfather/Pipeline Exemptions
  Inter-dependent criteria to receive pipeline/grandfather exemption from Inclusionary requirement.

The entire proposed Inclusionary Ordinance & the numerous potential Alternatives and Offsets the Council will be considering on December 9th is attached for your thorough review.

NAIOP Silicon Valley is working with the Chamber of Commerce, Tri-County Apartment Association, Santa Clara County Realtors Association and the Home Builders Association to oppose the adoption of a city-wide Inclusionary Ordinance. Following your review of the attached materials, please forward your comments to the Mayor of San Jose at 200 E. Santa Clara ST., 18th floor, San Jose CA 95113 or electronically at mayoremail@sanjoseca.gov. Additionally, meetings to discuss the proposed Inclusionary Ordinance are being held where you may want to attend and share your comments:

• November 19, 2008—City of San Jose Planning Commission—
  6:30 PM—San Jose City Council Chambers
• November 24, 2008 –Community and Economic Development Committee— San Jose City Hall wing rooms 118 & 119—1:30 PM
• December 9, 2008—City Council Meeting