In mid-February, the City Council adopted a Notification Housing Linkage Fee Ordinance in order to raise funds for the development of affordable housing through a linkage fee on commercial development. The notification ordinance serves to warn developers of this retroactive fee once the nexus study is completed in the next several months and the ultimate fee is determined.
However, attached to the ordinance were 11 exceptions for projects which are not required to pay the linkage fee. A final exception, to credit TFAR payments made to the CRA, was not adopted by the Council. What follows are the adopted exceptions:
- Any project for which a building permit is issued with less than forty thousand (40,000) square feet of new floor area as determined by the Department of Building and Safety;
- Any project located within the boundaries of an enterprise zone designated in Section 12.04 of the Los Angeles Municipal Code;
- Any project developed by non-profit entities such as hospitals, schools, religious institutions, museums, day care providers and other similar organizations, where the construction is directly related to the non-profit purpose of the organization as determined by the Community Development Department. This exception shall not apply to non-profit development of leasable commercial office space;
- Any project or portion of a project for industrial, warehouse development, or parking structures as defined by the Los Angeles Municipal Code and determined by the Department of Building and Safety;
- Any project within a current neighborhood Community Redevelopment Agency project area as defined by Section 12.04 of the Los Angeles Municipal Code other than the Bunker Hill, Central Business District, and Little Tokyo redevelopment areas;
- Any development project where one or more of the following discretionary approvals, initiated by application of the property owner or their representatives, was granted by a government agency between January 1, 1986, and October 1, 1989, and remains valid: zone change, conditional use permit, variance, height district change, zone boundary adjustment, specific plan exception, project permit pursuant to a moratorium ordinance, development agreement, coastal development permit, commercial corner development pursuant to Section 12.27 I B of the Los Angeles Municipal Code, project permit pursuant to an interim control ordinance, parcel map, tract map, or vesting tentative tract map. In addition, prior to the issuance of any such building permit, the Department of Planning shall certify in writing that the necessary environmental clearances were completed and that the discretionary approval included a determination of one or more of the following: building location, height, density, use, parking and access of the proposed project;
- Any project for which architectural and structural plans sufficient for a complete plan check for a building permit have been accepted by the Department of Building and Safety and for which plan check fees were collected on or before the effective date of this subsection and for which no subsequent changes are made to those plans which increase the height, floor area, or occupancy load by more than five (5%) percent;
- Any project for an existing building which will not result in the addition of over forty thousand (40,000) square feet of new space as determined by the Department of Building and Safety; and
- Residential buildings which contain one or more dwelling units, efficiency dwelling units, apartments units, or the residential portion of a building that has both residential and nonresidential uses. This exception shall not apply to hotels.
- Any project located within the boundaries of the Central City West Specific Plan Area, as defined in the ordinance No. 163,094, if the developer or project owner agrees by covenant and agreement or development agreement to abide by the linkage fee and replacement housing obligations set forth in the Draft Specific Plan for the Central City West Specific Plan Area, dated November 2, 1989.
- The repair, renovation, or rehabilitation of a building or structure of historical, archaeological or architectural consequence, if such building or structure has been officially designated, or has been determined by state or federal action to be eligible for designation, on the National Register of Historic Places, or has been included on the City of Los Angeles list of Historic-Cultural Monuments.
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