Title
Consideration of an Ordinance to Update the Inclusionary Housing Ordinance, Alameda Municipal Code Section 30-16, and make a recommendation to City Council regarding its adoption. In accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), this action is categorically exempt from environmental review pursuant to CEQA Guidelines section 15061(b)(3).
Body
To: President Cisneros and Members of the Planning Board
From: Steven Buckley, Planning Services Manager
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
On December 2, 2025, the City Council conducted a workshop to review various proposals to update the inclusionary housing ordinance, including consideration of the Planning Board's feedback from its workshop meeting on November 10, 2025. Both the Planning Board and Council provided guidance on several options to be considered, i.e. ways to adjust the percentage requirements for each of the affordability levels, fee options, and off-site project development parameters. Because the fee options will require a nexus study, which has not yet been commissioned, this report only covers the non-fee updates.
This report provides a summary of the issues and a staff recommendation for Planning Board to consider in formulating its recommendation to City Council.
BACKGROUND
The requirement that new development contribute to the provision of affordable housing is a widely accepted development regulation in California. Alameda has had such a requirement since 2004. The current ordinance is provided as Exhibit 1. Proposed amendments are provided as Exhibit 2 and Exhibit 3, showing the strike-through edits and a clean version of the draft ordinance, respectively.
Previous staff reports and workshops have provided an overview of the overarching concepts and the Alameda-specific policies, ordinance, programs and issues for the Planning Board and City Council. Exhibit 4 and Exhibit 5 provide that background.
DISCUSSION
Based on previous input from the ad hoc working group and community...
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