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accessible housing and she would love to work with staff on a universal design ordinance and many other things. Councilmember Sullivan thanked Ms. Lehman for reaching out with these issues and working with staff and the developer. Mayor Hosterman closed the public hearing. Councilmember Sullivan reviewed affordable rates as presented staff. Mr. Bocian corrected an error in the data presented, stating that affordable units are a maximum of $1,429 for one bedroom units and $1,786 for two bedroom units. Councilmember Sullivan noted that the applicant's current market rate units are less expensive than the affordable housing maximums. Mr. Bocian said it is not unusual to find time periods in which the market is below low- income rent. He said staff receives regular calls from low- income tenants who received rent increases when their neighbors did not. He explained this is because their rents increase in proportion to the area's median income. If incomes increase when the market decreases, this discrepancy occurs and staff will typically intervene with the property owner to secure rents. He said snapshots are useful but in looking at a longer period of 15 years, one will generally see that low- income units at 80% AMI trend close to but somewhat lower than market rate. Vice -Mayor Thorne said affordability is an important issue and asked if the imposition of $2,500 in Bernal Park fees (which totals approximately $90,000 for the project) would cause any increase in rents. Mr. Fialho said in the past, that language has been drafted to direct staff to work with owners on securing the fee. In some circumstances, staff has waived some processing fees in lieu of collecting the Bernal Park fee and there are a number of other ways to accomplish this goal. Councilmember McGovern said Bernal Park benefits this entire complex and any funds paid for parks should go directly to the Bernal property. Councilmember McGovern said this is an amazing example of the developer working with the City to accommodate accessibility issues. She appreciates everything they stepped forward to do and believes the residents will benefit significantly. She would still prefer to see more open space, but recognized that the applicant took the Council's comments to heart and has come up with a wonderful project. Vice -Mayor Thorne concurred with earlier comments that this would be a wonderful place to live. He appreciated that the applicant worked to improve accessibility conditions and particularly that they made so much improvement in terms of green building. Councilmember Sullivan concurred with the Council's comments and said he particularly appreciates the applicant working with CRIL. This is a positive precedent for future development and something that should be factored into the Hacienda Task Force process. He voiced support for the project and requested Council support on also applying a Bernal Park fee. The fee is imposed on new downtown development when there is room for open space; in this case existing green space is actually lost and there should be a tradeoff. He said these residents will clearly benefit from the Bernal Park, which provides the nexus for this fee. Councilmember McGovern said she could support the request given staff's comments about working with the developer to accommodate these fees. Mr. Fialho said staff would use the same formula applied to the downtown area in accomplishing this objective of securing money for the Bernal property. City Council Minutes Page 7 of 10 May 4, 2010