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housing; and its screening of owners and tenants (at least initially) to ensure that they are lower <br /> income households. In Napa, the plaintiffs had asserted that the City's ordinance was a rent <br /> control ordinance that violated the due process clause because it required the sale or rental of ten <br /> percent of housing units at a fixed price without any provision for a fair return on investment to <br /> the developer. While not resolving whether a fair rate of return was required, the Court of <br /> Appeal found that Napa's ordinance was not an ordinance that "require[d] property owners who <br /> develop residential housing to sell or rent 10 of their units [to low income individuals]," (i.e., <br /> was not a rent control ordinance) because any person who did not want to sell or rent a portion of <br /> his or her housing units to low income individuals could choose one of the numerous alternatives <br /> included in the ordinance, such as paying an in lieu fee or donating land.3° <br /> In 2000, the Colorado Supreme Court found that a similar ordinance was, indeed, a rent <br /> control law.31 The Town of Telluride's ordinance required developers to create housing <br /> affordable to forty percent of the employees generated by the development. The developer could <br /> satisfy the requirement by constructing new housing with controlled rents, paying fees. or <br /> dedicating land. Even though the developer was not required to provide rent-controlled units, the <br /> Colorado court found that the Telluride ordinance set a base rent and strictly limited rent <br /> increases and that the "scheme as a whole operated to suppress rental values below their market <br /> values," violating the "plain language" of the Colorado statute prohibiting rent control. Similarly, <br /> in 2006 a Wisconsin appellate court found that an inclusionary ordinance adopted by the City of <br /> Madison violated the "plain language" of a Wisconsin statute prohibiting local rent control, <br /> despite state policies encouraging cities to provide housing affordable to all income levels. The <br /> 30 Napa at 199. <br /> 11 See Town of Telluride v. Lot Thirty-Four Venture L.L.C., 3 P.3d 30,35 (Colo.2000). <br /> 11 <br /> 99005111A720372.3 <br /> 8/7/2009 <br />