20.170.010

A. This chapter is enacted to establish requirements and procedures for the control and approval of conversion of existing multiple-family rental housing and nonresidential structures to residential condominium and community apartment projects. By their unique character and requirements, conversions differ specifically from other subdivisions and apartments. The unique status of such projects tends to magnify the effects associated with higher urban densities to the point where they may lead to conditions of mismanagement, neglect, and blight that impact upon the public health, safety, welfare, and economic prosperity of the City of San José. Such projects may conflict with the policy of the City of San José to provide a reasonable balance of rental and ownership housing within the city, to provide a variety of individual choices of tenure, type, price, and location of housing and to maintain the supply of rental housing for low and moderate income persons and families. To insure that such problems are avoided in both short and long term, it is the express intent of the City of San José to treat such projects differently from multiple dwellings or other structures which are not residential condominium or community apartment projects, and to establish rules and standards thereto regulating the conversion to such projects in the City of San José. B. This chapter is enacted to insure that proposed conversions are approved consistent with policies and objectives of the City of San José, particularly the following: 1. To make adequate provision for the housing needs of all economic segments of the community; 2. To facilitate inhabitant ownership of residential units, while recognizing the need for maintaining adequate rental housing inventories in the high-density urban setting; 3. To provide a reasonable balance of rental and ownership housing; 4. To inform prospective conversion purchasers regarding the physical conditions of the structures offered for purchase. (Ord. 26248.)