A. This chapter applies to all residential development projects having more than thirty units.

B. Senior housing projects and lower income housing projects shall be exempt from the provisions of this chapter.

C. Projects with no more than thirty units shall be exempt from the allocation procedures as described in Section 17.26.050, below. However, projects of this type, unless otherwise exempted as senior or lower income housing shall have their units covered as part of the annual allocation established by the city council. Furthermore, said nonsenior or lower income housing projects shall be limited to phasing the project at fifteen parcels, or units construction, or less per year.

D. Projects on parcels of five acres or less and no more than thirty units shall be exempt from the allocation procedure as described in Section 17.26.050, below. However, projects of this type, unless otherwise exempted as senior or lower income housing, shall have their units counted as part of the annual allocation established by the city council. Furthermore, said non-senior or lower income housing projects shall be limited to phasing the project at fifteen parcels, or units constructed, or less per year.

E. An applicant may not request allocations for more than one hundred units for a single project or project phase for a given year unless the city council authorizes the additional allocations by means of a development agreement.

F. Reservations for allotments in a given year shall be limited to a total of two hundred fifty units for all projects.

G. Applications for development approval (either tentative map or other applicable approval for residential projects not requiring a land division) may be submitted for an entire project, even if it exceeds one hundred units. However, the city shall require a project to be phased so that no single phase shall exceed the allocation limit set forth in subsection (E) of this section, nor shall any single phase exceed the number of allotments granted to that project for a given year. When phasing of a project is required in order to satisfy the provisions of this chapter, one or more of the following shall apply:

H. The department of community development shall develop and maintain as current a "user’s guide" to the requirements set forth in this chapter. Said guide shall be made available to all interested persons and, especially, to those with applicable projects. The city council shall adopt and amend the guide by resolution.

I. The city council may at its discretion create a secondary allocation pool, not to exceed two hundred allocations for special projects meeting a particular segment of the housing market as defined by the city council’s development objectives. Unless otherwise specified in this chapter, the same application and approval procedures shall apply to this secondary pool. The criteria for eligibility for the secondary pool shall be set by the city council at the time the pool is created.

J. There shall be no reservations for the secondary allocation pool.

K. Residential projects ultimately subject to the Residential Growth Management System may proceed with other necessary approvals not directly resulting in the division of land or construction of residential units, (i.e., general plan amendment, rezoning, environmental review, annexation, etc.) as determined by the director of community development. The processing of such applications not directly resulting in the division of land or construction of dwelling units is not a commitment by the city that the proposal will ultimately receive allocations. Prior to said application(s) being considered complete, the applicant shall acknowledge in writing that the processing and approval of said application(s) is not to be interpreted as a commitment by the city to grant allocations to the project in future years.

Residential projects not requiring land division to construct individual units, unless exempt from the growth management system, may not process any applications directly resulting in the right to create residential units, such as SPARC approval, prior to the project being granted allotments.