State HCD Breaks Down Citizen-Approved Height Barrier for Density Bonus Projects
State HCD Breaks Down Citizen-Approved Height Barrier
for Density Bonus Projects
In a June 10, 2022 Letter of Technical Assistance to the City of San Diego, the California Department of Housing and Community Development (“HCD”) advised that the state’s Density Bonus Law (“DBL”) supersedes the 30-foot height restriction in the City’s Coastal Height Limit Overlay Zone (“CHLOZ”). The CHLOZ, which was approved by voter initiative in 1972, generally limits maximum building heights to 30 feet for all areas seaward of Interstate 5 (unless specifically exempted by the San Diego Municipal Code). Thus, the CHLOZ greatly limits building heights in large swaths of the City, including beyond the reaches of the City’s Coastal Zone.
Finding that the DBL permits qualifying housing projects to exceed the 30-foot height limit, HCD’s decision has statewide relevance as it clarifies that voter-approved development standards, like agency-adopted standards, are subject to the DBL (which mandates incentives, concessions, and waivers from development standards for qualifying projects). Locally, within the City of San Diego, the letter opens the door to qualifying DBL projects to exceed the height limit imposed by the CHLOZ. HCD specifically stated that its hope was that the determinations in the technical assistance letter “might serve to further facilitate the production of affordable housing in these areas, especially insofar as the 30-foot height limit may have been a barrier to [DBL]-enabled applications in the past.”
It is worthwhile noting that HCD’s letter states that it was specific to a site within the CHLOZ but outside of the City’s Coastal Zone. Though HCD’s technical guidance does not expressly extend to the Coastal Zone itself, the DBL still serves as a valuable tool for qualifying housing projects within the Coastal Zone. This is particularly true for the San Diego Coastal Zone, as the San Diego Municipal Code recognizes that DBL-qualifying projects are entitled to incentives and waivers from development standards unless the incentive or waiver would be “inconsistent with the resource protection standards of the City’s Local Coastal Program or the environmentally sensitive lands regulations, with the exception of density.” Also, because the Coastal Commission has reasoned that the CHLOZ itself precluded incentives and waivers for qualifying DBL projects, HCD’s guidance on the applicability of the CHLOZ may open the door to seeking increased heights in the Coastal Zone proper, not just the CHLOZ.