Using Density Bonuses To Spur Affordable Housing Development

The Centre City Development Corporation (CCDC), the downtown San Diego redevelopment agency, has begun offering a new density bonus to incentivize builders to create more affordable homes.

"Even with existing incentives offered by the city and state, few new projects are currently integrating affordable units. With the new program, CCDC offers a higher "development intensity bonus" to generate additional affordable for-sale housing. Recently, the in-lieu fees that developers were paying nearly tripled from $2.50 to $7.31 per square foot, making the incentive program even more promising in bringing affordable housing to the city, said Suzanne Drolet, associate planner for CCDC."

'Density bonuses are offered at the state and city levels, with a 15 percent bonus from the state and 25 percent bonus from the city of San Diego for projects in which 10 percent of units are dedicated affordable,' said Drolet. 'CCDC, which doesn't regulate density, offers a 35 percent development intensity bonus, also know as Floor Area Ratio or F.A.R., to builders who integrate affordable housing into their developments. We felt it was time to offer a more attractive option so they would give more thought to the idea.'"