AGENDA REPORT - Laserfiche WebLink

LIHF Category- Recommendations While the primary purpose of the Report is to advise the Council regarding a supportable lower income housing fee, staff is also seeking City Council/ Commission direction regarding the following two areas that are somewhat separate from direction requested for a fee amount. These are as follows: 1. Accept the Report's Methodology — As indicated, the EPS methodology is generally accepted to be appropriate for developing a nexus between affordable housing fees and the impact of development and as such, it is more current and supportable than the City's existing methodology. Because of the concern regarding the current validity of the City's current fee methodology, staff has not updated the existing fee methodology to determine if it produces larger or lesser fee options. As a result, if the City Council reject's the EPS presented methodology, staff would pursue that process and report back to the City Council. Further, staff finds the report complete and consistent with project scope. Staff Recommendation — Accept the Report and incorporate its methodology as the basis for establishing a maximum supportable Lower Income Housing Fee. 2. LIHF Categories — The City's LIHF currently includes four fee categories: single family home greater than 1,500 square feet, single family home less than 1,500 square feet, multi-family and commercial/office/industrial. As addressed below, there are a number of fee category options available that more closely relate to the various options reviewed in the Report and some of these are as follows: Current Versus Potential Alternative Fee Categories Current Fee Categories Potential Alternative Categories Single Family > 1,500 sq ft Residential Square Footage — Fee per square foot regardless of type of housing Single Family < 1,500 sq ft Residential Zoning Density — Higher densities eligible for lower per unit fees Multi-Family Number of Bedrooms — Higher fee payment as number of bedrooms increase Commercial/Office/Industrial Nonresidential — Specific fee amounts for retail, office, hotel/motel, R&D/ light industrial to better reflect affordable housing impact While there is justification for all of the above fee types, due to efficiency in administration and fee familiarity within the development community, staff supports retaining the current fee categories. However, for commercial in particular, this support assumes that the fee will be set at a level that is supportable and financially feasible for all of the commercial types. Should the Council determine that, based on the Report's findings, it's appropriate to have a higher fee for retail uses, then that fee would need to be placed in a separate fee category. Page 6 of 12