After a months-long process that started in July, the City Council passed an ordinance to amend parts of the Beverly Hills Municipal Code involving affordable housing. City planners have been working on the ordinance since the Planning Commission recommended changes be made to the occupancy priority standards for affordable housing units. These standards determine who is next in line to receive housing based on factors such as age, income and location of work. Over the course of the last few months, city planners have been drafting the ordinance with the help of public comment, examples from neighboring cities and commission feedback before it was presented for a first reading at a meeting on Oct. 10. At a meeting on Nov. 7, city planners recommended waiving the second reading and urged the council to adopt it as is. They approved it as part of the consent calendar in a unanimous vote.
Under the amended code, income-restricted affordable housing units will be offered to households who meet the income requirements in the order of tiers one through four. The first tier includes existing occupants, who are the top priority. After them, the second tier includes households that have been displaced within the city in the past 10 years in the following order:
1. Senior households, or residents 62 years and older;
2. Households with students in the tenth grade or lower who are enrolled in the Beverly Hills Unified School District (It can take a few years to be offered an affordable housing unit, at which point students above tenth grade are no longer enrolled in a Beverly Hills school.);
3. Other displaced households.
The third tier includes all senior households, no matter how long they have been displaced, and the fourth tier includes individuals employed full-time by a public or private entity located and operating in the city of Beverly Hills, and whose primary work location is located within the city of Beverly Hills. Full-time employment is further defined as a minimum of 130 hours of work per calendar month over a six-month period.
The ordinance also requires the municipal code to include a definition of displacement, which was largely inspired by the cities of Santa Monica and Pasadena. According to the ordinance, displacement shall be defined as “When persons have permanently vacated their primary housing unit in the city, or are at risk of having to vacate their primary housing unit within the city of Beverly Hills as a result of any of the following:
a. Demolition of the housing unit due to a new development project on the subject property
b. Voluntary vacation of the housing unit related to a new development project on the subject property (for example, accepting cash for keys offer);
c. Withdrawal of the housing unit from the rental housing market under the Ellis Act;
d. Involuntary vacation of a housing unit due to a natural disaster such as an earthquake, fire, or flood.”
Because the ordinance was approved, all changes to the municipal code will go into effect on the thirty-first day after its passage, or Dec. 8. It has no fiscal impact.
