Petitioners subject to the requirements of this chapter may satisfy the need for mitigation of any residential housing unit losses by any one of the following methods:
A. Replacement Housing: The petitioner may agree, in a legal form satisfactory to the city attorney, to construct the same number of residential dwelling units proposed for demolition, within:
1. The city council district in which the land subject of the petition is located; or
2. An adjoining council district, if the mitigation site is within a one mile radius of the demolition site.
3. Any such agreement shall include adequate security to guarantee completion within two (2) years of the granting of a demolition permit.
B. Fee Based On Difference Between Housing Value And Replacement Cost: The petitioner may pay to the city housing trust fund the difference between the fair market value of the housing units planned to be eliminated or demolished and the replacement cost of building new units of similar square footage and meeting all existing building, fire and other applicable law, excluding land values.
C. Fee, Where Deteriorated Housing Exists, Not Caused By Deliberate Indifference Of Landowner:
1. Request By Petitioner For Flat Fee Consideration: In the event that a residential dwelling unit is targeted or proposed for demolition and is in a deteriorated state from natural causes, such as fire, earthquake or aged obsolescence that is not occasioned by the deliberate acts or omissions to act on the part of the petitioner or his predecessors in interest, which detrimental condition reduces a dwelling unit's fair market value or habitability as a residential dwelling unit, the petitioner may request an exemption from the above two (2) methods of mitigation from the director of the department of community and neighborhoods as provided below. A judgment as to whether deterioration has occurred as the result of deliberate indifference shall be based on a preponderance of evidence.
2. Required Facts Of Natural Deterioration/Increase Fair Market Value Of Units To Be Demolished: The petitioner may submit to the director of the department of community and neighborhoods every fact known to support the proposition that the residential dwelling units were not purposely allowed to deteriorate by lack of reasonable maintenance, ordinary and prudent repairs, or other acts or omissions to act. The value of the unit(s) targeted or proposed for demolition may be increased to the fair market value that the units would have, if each unit was in a state of habitability and minimally meeting applicable building codes and other applicable law, excluding land value. This enhanced value will then be applied in thus computing any housing mitigation payment provided in subsection B of this section.
3. Flat Fee Mitigation Payment: In the event that the petitioner actually and reasonably demonstrates to the director of community and neighborhoods that the costs of calculating and analyzing the various methods of mitigation are unreasonably excessive in relationship to the rough estimated costs of constitutionally permitted mitigation, the department director may recommend to the city council that a flat rate be paid by the petitioner to the city's housing trust fund. This flat rate shall be a sum not in excess of three thousand three hundred twenty two dollars twenty cents ($3,322.20) per dwelling unit to be demolished. Such flat fee shall be adjusted for inflation as of January 1 of each calendar year following the initial adoption hereof, based on the consumer price index for the previous twelve (12) months, or three percent (3%), whichever result is less. (Ord. 49-16, 2016: Ord. 94-12, 2012)