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P20-0989, Objective Design Standards Planning Commission 3 of 7 Objective Standards for Housing Element Sites Exhibit A to this agenda report is the draft objective design standards for Housing Element sites. The initial feedback from the Commission’s September 2021 review has been incorporated into an updated draft, along with additional standards applicable to other project types. Therefore, the document identifies standards for various types of housing: multifamily and single-family. Key changes to the document since the Commission’s September 2021 review include revision of introductory text regarding the project review process; standards for bedroom mix and affordability levels; reference to the municipal code for minimum site development standards; and inclusion of objective standards applicable to single-family development, all of which are discussed in detail below. Project Review and Approval Procedures The Housing Accountability Act and recent changes to other sections of State law impact how the City is able to review housing projects. Additionally, the Planned Unit Development (PUD) process has been questioned during review by the Housing and Community Development Department (HCD) of the Draft 6th Cycle Housing Element. To this end, the draft Housing Element includes a program for the City to reevaluate (and update the municipal code accordingly) to its PUD process such that sites identified for housing in the Housing Element are reviewed strictly for conformance to applicable objective design standards . This process would still entail review by the Planning Commission (and City Council if appealed), but the review would be limited to objective standards. Therefore, the draft standards as proposed includes text that outlines this process and expectation. Objective Design Standards and Affordability Mix Implementation programs in the Draft 6th Cycle Housing Element indicate that the City will, among other things, develop ODS (as presented in this report) and that it will update its Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance (IZO). The IZO currently does not specify the desired affordable housing mix in terms of income levels, and past practice has been to negotiate this with developers through the Affordable Housing Agreement. The objective of the amendments to the IZO would be to specify a target mix of unit sizes (by number of bedrooms) and affordability levels. In the interest of establishing the bedroom mix and affordability requirements with the Housing Element adoption, the draft ODS for the Housing Sites3 includes a bedroom mix and affordability requirements. Bedroom Mix: • Minimum of 10-percent of units to be Three-Bedroom; • 45-percent of units to be Two-Bedroom; and • The remainder One-Bedroom or Studio, except that no more than 10-percent of units may be Studios 3 The ODS for R-M, C-C, and M-U Districts do not include this same requirement. Projects in these districts would need to meet the requirements of the IZO, but the unit size and affordability levels would be on a project-by- project basis. This is due to the fact that many of the projects anticipated in these z oning districts would not be subject to the IZO (i.e., the IZO applies to new multifamily residential projects of 15 units or more, where at least 15 percent of the project’s dwelling units shall be affordable to very low, and/or low income households). If the IZO were to apply, the bedroom-mix and affordability levels would need to be custom-tailored to account for the lack of “economies of scale.”