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SLO City Council's inclusionary housing ordinance update aims to create more affordable units

SLO city counsel discussing the updated inclusionary housing ordinance
SLO City Council
SLO City Council discusses the updated inclusionary housing ordinance on July 19

The San Luis Obispo City Council has voted to introduce a draft ordinance updating their inclusionary housing regulations, which would remove a key regulation called "Table 2A." It was meant to encourage affordable housing in SLO, but city staff says it has had the opposite effect.

“In practice, Table 2A does not produce affordable housing,” said Senior Planner, Rachel Cohen. She said it was originally meant to incentivize housing developers to build affordable housing in future units in 1999's original inclusionary housing ordinance (IHO).

The construction site for HASLO's project at Lucca Lane.
Benjamin Purper
The construction site for HASLO's affordable housing project at Lucca Lane in SLO.

“Table 2A was established to encourage projects with higher density and smaller unit sizes to be sold or rented to households that meet moderate or lower-income standards,” Cohen said.

The original IHO states that housing contractors can opt out of building inclusionary housing by paying a fee towards the city. The fee would then be put in a fund where it would be provided for non-profits to utilize and build inclusionary housing for San Luis Obispo.

Because of this, companies weren’t building inclusionary housing for less than moderate income households.

The biggest changes in the proposed IHO is that the amendment will now apply citywide, rather than parts of the city and other expansion areas. Cohen said the ordinance will require all market residential homes, and commercial buildings to pay a fee, and to get rid of Table 2A’s requirements.

Mayor Erica A. Stewart voted against the ordinance. “When we're talking about our teachers and our lower paid individuals, hospitality, it seems odd to me to be having this inclusionary housing ordinance discussion, without involving people who should be at this table,” Stewart said.

Stewart wanted to delay the proposal until next year to discuss the updated ordinance, because she said she believes the city is still missing pieces to the puzzle.

The new ordinance would only include future development projects, and any current developments would not have to adapt. The July 17 meeting is archived on slocity.org.

Gabriela Fernandez came to KCBX in May of 2022 as a general assignment reporter, and became news director in December of 2023. She graduated from Sacramento State with a BA in Political Science. During her senior year, she interned at CapRadio in their podcast department, and later worked for them as an associate producer on the TahoeLand podcast. When she's not writing or editing news stories, she loves to travel, play tennis and take her 140-lbs dog, Atlas, on long walks by the coast.
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