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10 of 11 measurable standards; modify exterior design standards such that affordable units will be “equivalent in appearance and quality” to the ma rket rate units. • 17.44.060 – Affordable Housing Agreement: Clarifying that where a project is permitted by City Council to pay affordable housing fees, such project does not require a separate affordable housing agreement, and the requirement would instead be memorialized in a city council resolution for approval. • 17.44.070 – Incentives to Encourage On-Site Construction of Inclusionary Units: Deletion of the incentive for “priority processing” since this requirement may conflict with State law. • 17.44.080 – Alternative Means of Compliance. Other minor revisions to be consistent with State law, requiring the City to provide alternative compliance methods for rental projects; and to clarify/strengthen requirements and criteria for approval of alternative compliance requests. • 17.44.090 – Administration. Addition of a provision regarding amendment of affordable housing agreements; minor, non-substantive design changes and changes that would improve conformance to the IZO, may be approved administratively; other amendments are subject to approval by the same body that approved the original agreement. Other Amendments to the PMC and Objective Design Standards In addition to the various amendments to Chapter 17.44, various amendments are proposed to other chapters of the PMC, and to the 2023 Objective Design Standards to align with the IZO amendments, and to make other limited updates to align with State law. In summary, they include the following: Chapter 17.40 – Affordable Housing Fee Minor revisions have been made to this chapter, including clarification of the purposes for which affordable housing funds may be used, which include affordable housing programs as well as construction of affordable housing units. Other changes have been made to modernize terminology (e.g. referencing facilities for religious purposes as being exempt from the affordable housing fee); and/or align it to existing regulations (e.g. adding a reference to Junior ADUs, as well as ADUs as being exempt from the affordable housing fee.) Chapter 17.40 allows for an annual increase to the affordable housing fee – consistent with other impact fees, it is proposed to amend the ordinance so that the fee is indexed to the Construction Cost Index (CCI), rather than the Consumer Price Index (CPI), since provision of affordable/inclusionary housing is a construction-related cost. Finally, references to annual reporting and other requirements pursuant to AB1600 (Mitigation Fee Act) have been removed since the affordable housing fee is not considered an impact fee or subject to AB1600. Chapter 18.38 – Housing Opportunity Zone District As noted, as part of implementation of the 2023-2031 (6th Cycle) Housing Element, the City rezoned sites and created the Housing Opportunity Zone District. Since the IZO was pending update, some more detailed standards for inclusionary housing were included in this chapter.