The state density bonus law encourages developers to build more units per acre than local zoning allows, ostensibly for the sake of including one or more affordable units. For example, a proposed Leucadia density bonus project would be nine houses, including one affordable unit, where local zoning would allow only five.
For Encinitas density bonus projects, “affordable” means the state/federal very low and low-income categories apply. For a household of four, very low income is $41,300, while low income is $66,100. Both are maximums.
To rent a three-bedroom unit, very low-income earners can pay $949 per month, and low-income earners can pay $1,139. To buy that unit, very low-income earners can pay $949, while low income earners can pay $1,328.
To date, there have been 18 density bonus projects completed in Encinitas. Nine more are far enough along in the process not to be affected by the new density bonus ordinance.
Those 27 projects contain 573 units. Of those, 49 (8.6 percent) are or will be affordable.
Of the 38 affordable units completed and occupied, 35 are rented and three were sold.
How many of the 11 affordable units in the nine pending projects will be rented or sold is not yet known.
City staff provided the facts and figures cited above in response to a public records request.
Doug Fiske has been an Encinitas resident for 46 years.
