Code Section

65915.5.  

(a) When an applicant for approval to convert apartments to a condominium project agrees to provide at least 33 percent of the total units of the proposed condominium project to persons and families of low or moderate income as defined in Section 50093 of the Health and Safety Code, or 15 percent of the total units of the proposed condominium project to lower income households as defined in Section 50079.5 of the Health and Safety Code, and agrees to pay for the reasonably necessary administrative costs incurred by a city, county, or city and county pursuant to this section, the city, county, or city and county shall either (1) grant a density bonus or (2) provide other incentives of equivalent financial value. A city, county, or city and county may place such reasonable conditions on the granting of a density bonus or other incentives of equivalent financial value as it finds appropriate, including, but not limited to, conditions which assure continued affordability of units to subsequent purchasers who are persons and families of low and moderate income or lower income households.

(b) For purposes of this section, “density bonus” means an increase in units of 25 percent over the number of apartments, to be provided within the existing structure or structures proposed for conversion.

(c) For purposes of this section, “other incentives of equivalent financial value” shall not be construed to require a city, county, or city and county to provide cash transfer payments or other monetary compensation but may include the reduction or waiver of requirements which the city, county, or city and county might otherwise apply as conditions of conversion approval.

(d) An applicant for approval to convert apartments to a condominium project may submit to a city, county, or city and county a preliminary proposal pursuant to this section prior to the submittal of any formal requests for subdivision map approvals. The city, county, or city and county shall, within 90 days of receipt of a written proposal, notify the applicant in writing of the manner in which it will comply with this section. The city, county, or city and county shall establish procedures for carrying out this section, which shall include legislative body approval of the means of compliance with this section.

(e) Nothing in this section shall be construed to require a city, county, or city and county to approve a proposal to convert apartments to condominiums.

(f) An applicant shall be ineligible for a density bonus or other incentives under this section if the apartments proposed for conversion constitute a housing development for which a density bonus or other incentives were provided under Section 65915.

(g) An applicant shall be ineligible for a density bonus or any other incentives or concessions under this section if the condominium project is proposed on any property that includes a parcel or parcels on which rental dwelling units are or, if the dwelling units have been vacated or demolished in the five-year period preceding the application, have been subject to a recorded covenant, ordinance, or law that restricts rents to levels affordable to persons and families of lower or very low income; subject to any other form of rent or price control through a public entity’s valid exercise of its police power; or occupied by lower or very low income households, unless the proposed condominium project replaces those units, as defined in subparagraph (B) of paragraph (3) of subdivision (c) of Section 65915, and either of the following applies:

(1) The proposed condominium project, inclusive of the units replaced pursuant to subparagraph (B) of paragraph (3) of subdivision (c) of Section 65915, contains affordable units at the percentages set forth in subdivision (a).

(2) Each unit in the development, exclusive of a manager’s unit or units, is affordable to, and occupied by, either a lower or very low income household.

(h) Subdivision (g) does not apply to an applicant seeking a density bonus for a proposed housing development if their application was submitted to, or processed by, a city, county, or city and county before January 1, 2015.