Existing law, commonly referred to as the Density Bonus Law, requires a city or county to provide a developer that proposes a housing development, as defined, within the city or county with a density bonus and other incentives or concessions if the developer agrees to construct a specified type of housing development that meets certain criteria. The developer can agree to construct a student housing development that provides twenty percent (20%) of the total units for lower income students. All units in the student housing development must be used exclusively for undergraduate, graduate, or professional students enrolled full-time at an institution of higher learning accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges or the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges. As a condition of receiving a certificate of occupancy, the developer must provide, among other items, evidence that it has entered into an operating agreement or master lease with one or more institutions of higher education to occupy all units of the student housing development with students from such institution or institutions, and the applicable twenty percent (20%) units must be used by low-income students.
Assembly Bill (AB 3116) amends these requirements for a housing developer to construct a student housing development and receive the density bonus and the certificate of occupancy. It amends the requirements that the units be used by students enrolled full-time to allow the units to be used by undergraduate, graduate, or professional students enrolled currently or in the past six (6) months in at least six (6) units at the above institutions. As a condition of receiving a certificate of occupancy, the developer must provide evidence that it established a system for confirming its renters’ status as students to ensure all units of the student housing development are occupied with students from an institution of higher education.
Existing law defines units to mean one rental bed and its pro rata share of associated common area facilities. These units are subject to a recorded affordability restriction of 55 years. AB 3116 prohibits tying the affordability restriction to a rental bed reserved for lower income students to a specific bedroom. The affordability restriction provision shall not prevent a lower income student from sharing a room or unit with a non-lower income student.
AB 3116 defines “student housing development” to mean a development that contains bedrooms with two (2) or more bedspaces that have a shared or private bathroom, access to a shared or private living room and laundry facilities, and access to a shared or private kitchen.
Existing law requires one incentive for projects that include at least twenty percent (20%) of the total units for lower income students in a student housing development. AB 3116 requires two (2) incentives for projects that include at least twenty-three percent (23%) of the total units for lower income students in a student housing development
AB 3116 revises the method for calculating the percentage density bonus for a student housing development that includes twenty percent (20%) of the total units for lower income students to instead provide a density bonus that varies based on the percentage of low-income units in that development, as specified.
Except as provided, existing law prohibits, upon the request of the developer, a city, county, or city and county from requiring a vehicular parking ratio, as specified, of a development meeting the criteria of its provisions that exceeds specified ratios, including zero to one bedroom to one onsite parking space. AB 3116 adds to those specified ratios one bedspace in a student housing development to zero parking spaces.
(AB 3116 amends section 65915 of the Government Code.)