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Page 3 of 12 <br />City of Redwood City 1017 Middlefield Road, Redwood City, CA. 94063 Tel: 650-780-7000 www.redwoodcity.org <br />adjustments to City requirements could make the difference between a project moving forward or <br />development entitlements expiring with no housing built. <br />With these challenges in mind, staff analyzed which City requirements could be reasonably adjusted to <br />help certain housing projects move forward. In some cities, this has included reducing development <br />impact fees or modifying Conditions of Approval to remove specific obligations originally required of the <br />developer. Rather than reducing critical obligations—such as park, transportation, sewer, or water impact <br />fees—staff focused on potential adjustments to the City’s inclusionary housing requirements, while <br />recognizing the strength of Redwood City’s existing housing pipeline. Due to the fact that the City has <br />already secured a significant number of housing units in the pipeline, it may be more feasible to accept a <br />slight reduction in deed-restricted affordable units on select projects than to compromise on essential <br />infrastructure funding. <br />Affordable Housing Ordinance <br />In 2015, the City of Redwood City adopted an Affordable Housing Impact Fee that applied to new <br />residential and nonresidential development. In 2018, the City established an affordable housing <br />construction requirement for residential developments (also called “inclusionary” housing). An Affordable <br />Housing Ordinance (AHO) (Article 29 of the Zoning Ordinance) was adopted to consolidate the City’s <br />inclusionary housing policies and affordable housing impact fee in one location within the Zoning <br />Ordinance. <br />As currently drafted, the AHO requires large residential developments (20 units or more) to provide <br />affordable housing units on-site. More specifically, the AHO requires large rental projects to provide 20% <br />affordable units, of which 10% must be provided for moderate-income households, 5% for low-income <br />households and 5% for very low-income households. Large ownership projects are required to provide <br />15% of total units for moderate-income households. Small residential developments (5 to 19 units) and <br />nonresidential development are subject to the affordable housing impact fee. <br />Since it has been more than seven years since the AHO was first adopted, Redwood City is now <br />collaborating with several other cities within San Mateo County to conduct nexus and feasibility studies <br />to evaluate affordable housing requirements. This effort aims to strike a balance between ensuring that <br />private development helps provide the affordable housing needed as a result of their development, while <br />ensuring that fee levels are not so high as to stifle development. It is anticipated that the studies will be <br />completed by summer of 2026 and that the Planning Commission and City Council will review potential <br />revisions to the AHO in the fall of 2026. <br />Redwood City’s current requirement of 20% combined affordable units for rental projects is above <br />average for San Mateo and Santa Clara County jurisdictions. In these counties, the average inclusionary <br />requirement for rental projects is 15.8% and ownership projects is 16.1% while the median requirement <br />for rentals and ownership is 15%. Attachment C provides details by city. <br />10.A. - Page 3 of 31 <br />212