Opinion ID: 2365726
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 26

Heading: Order Municipality to Impose Subdivision Conditions and Other Inclusionary Devices

Text: Another method of fostering production of low and moderately priced housing is to condition approval of large residential developments and subdivisions on agreements that a certain percentage of units affordable by lower income people will be provided. Such schemes have already been implemented in several parts of the country. In Montgomery County, Maryland, for example, developments with 50 or more residential units are required to include moderately priced dwelling units comprising at least 15% of the total number of units in the project. Similarly, an inclusionary ordinance enacted by the Los Angeles City Council in 1974 now requires developers of multifamily apartments, condominiums or cooperatives with five or more units to include at least 6% low income and a total of 15% low and moderate income units in each project. For a detailed account of these and other inclusionary zoning schemes, see Kleven, supra, 21 U.C.L.A.L. Rev. at 1438-1448 & passim. See also Rubinowitz, supra at 53-63, 222; Rose, From the Legislatures: The Mandatory Percentage of Moderately Priced Dwelling Ordinance (MPMPD) Is the Latest Technique of Inclusionary Zoning, 3 Real Estate L.J. 167 (1974). The terms and conditions of these programs vary considerably. Some rely exclusively on subsidized housing for satisfaction of their mandatory percentage requirements. Where this is the case, the requirement should be set aside if the developer can prove that a good faith effort has failed to uncover necessary government subsidies. Even where the scheme requires provision of privately financed units (with price ceilings in lieu of subsidized dwellings), it often provides for a waiver of this requirement where it would work a hardship upon the developer or deprive him of a fair and reasonable return on his investment. In order to facilitate production of mandatory low priced dwellings by reducing the cost of these units, many inclusionary schemes also provide for density bonuses and conditional waivers of other cost-generating land use regulations. In addition, inclusionary zoning schemes are generally enforced by simply withholding approval or enjoining construction of a development until compliance with the mandatory percentage provision has been assured. Finally, many such programs also contain provisions which guarantee that moderately priced units will, in fact, be purchased or rented by low and moderate income families. See, e.g., Kleven, supra, 21 U.C.L.A.L. Rev. at 1445 n. 40 and 1448 n. 51. The salutary remedial effects of these devices are obvious. Not only do they promote construction of moderately priced housing, but they directly address the problem of avoiding creation of suburban slums through deconcentration of low and moderate income housing. Id. at 1448-1460. In addition, they foster higher quality construction and better maintenance of low income units, because [t]he incentive for good workmanship and maintenance should be greater ... if the subsidized units are tied to a developer's conventional sales and rental units, whose marketability would be adversely affected by poor construction or maintenance of the subsidized units. Id. at 1461-1462. For these reasons, inclusionary provisions represent an important and useful addition to the arsenal of judicial remedies. [30]