In San Jose, new housing developments must include affordable units Tuesday, January 12, 2010 By John Woolfolk, San Jose Mercury News Over continued objection from homebuilders, San Jose officials Tuesday approved an ordinance requiring future housing development throughout the city to include a number of units affordable to low-income households. The City Council voted 9-2 to approve the "citywide inclusionary housing ordinance," something downtown Councilman Sam Liccardo had urged. The council approved the concept of such a requirement in December 2008. Backers said the citywide rule would provide more fairness and avoid concentrating affordable-housing in redevelopment project areas where they already are required. Councilmen Pete Constant and Pierluigi Oliverio restated their earlier opposition to the ordinance, citing concerns from business leaders and the housing industry that it would stifle economic recovery and that developers would end up raising the costs of their market-priced homes to recover costs from the affordable units. Absent a dramatic recovery in the depressed housing market, the new requirement would not take effect until January 2013. Under the approved ordinance, housing developers would have to make 15 percent of on-site units affordable to households earning less than the median income. The requirement would be 20 percent if built off-site. The council on a separate vote did approve a significant exemption to allow the Communications Hill specific plan area to continue development under the rules in place when it was approved in 1992. Oliverio also opposed that decision, while Councilwoman Madison Nguyen abstained because she lives in that area.