(a) The Director may approve an MPDU agreement that allows an applicant, instead of building some or all of the required for-sale MPDUs in a proposed subdivision or conversion of existing property from non-residential use to residential use, to pay to the Housing Initiative Fund an amount computed under subsection (b) upon a finding that:
(A) an indivisible package of services and facilities available to all residents of the proposed subdivision would cost MPDU buyers so much that it is likely to make the MPDUs effectively unaffordable by eligible buyers;
(B) regulatory development constraints at a particular site would render the building of approved density and all required MPDUs at that site infeasible; or
(C) the public benefit of providing affordable housing throughout the County outweighs the value of locating MPDUs in each subdivision throughout the County; and
(2) accepting the payment will further the objective of providing a broad range of housing opportunities throughout the County.
(b) A payment under this section in full satisfaction of MPDU requirements must be three percent of the sale price of each market rate unit in the development. A payment made in partial satisfaction of MPDU requirements must be adjusted based on the percentage of required MPDUs provided.
(c) A payment to the Housing Initiative Fund under this Section:
(1) must not be used to reduce the annual County payment to the Fund;
(2) must be deposited in to the Affordable Housing Acquisition and Preservation CIP project; and
(3) must be used only to buy, build, or preserve more MPDUs, or more bedrooms in the same number or fewer MPDUs, in the same Planning Area as the development for which the payment was made unless:
(A) the payment is used in a Planning Area designated by the Planning Board in which at least 45% of the United States Census Tracts have a median household income of at least 150% of the County-wide median household income; or
(B) the Director first provides the Council with:
(i) notice of the intent to use the payment in a different Planning Area that does not meet the requirement in subparagraph (A);
(ii) good cause for the use of the payment in the different Planning Area; and
(iii) at least 30 days to comment.
(d) The Director must notify the Council in writing within ten days of approving an alternative payment agreement under this Section. ( , § 1; , § 1; , §1; , §1.)
Editor's note—2004 L.M.C., ch. 29, § 2, states in part: "The amendments to Chapter 25A made by Section 1 of this Act which extend the control period for sale and rental MPDUs do not apply to any MPDU for which a sale contract or rental agreement was signed before April 1, 2005." 2004 L.M.C., ch. 29, § 3, states: "Executive proposal. By April 1, 2006, the County Executive, after consulting the Planning Board and Housing Opportunities Commission, must propose to the Council legislation or a regulation to limit alternative payment agreements under Section 25A-5A, inserted by Section 1 of this Act, to: (a) senior citizens and special needs housing with unaffordable services and facilities; and (b) environmental constraints that would render the building of required MPDUs at a site economically infeasible."
