In response to new state housing laws that went into effect on Jan. 1, Union City staff will recommend that the city eliminate the in-lieu fee option for rental housing developers. Instead, developers of rental housing projects of seven or more units would be required to incorporate the mandatory 15 percent affordable apartments within the project or negotiate with the city to build the units elsewhere. The recommendation is one of several related policy changes the City Council is set to consider at its meeting on Jan. 23, 2018. If the council agrees, staff will prepare the ordinance language for consideration at Planning Commission and City Council public hearings later this year. Click here to read the staff report, which contains details of this and the staff’s other policy recommendations. Interestingly, the city has only two residential projects in its development pipeline. Of the two, only one is multi-family and it appears likely to be an ownership product. For comments or questions, contact BIA’s Lisa Vorderbrueggen at 925-348-1956 or lvorderbrueggen@biabayarea.org.
