Developer Resources

Below Market Rate (Inclusionary) Program

The goal of the City of San Mateo is to create and retain a variety of housing opportunities in the community. The City has a Below Market Rate (BMR) Ordinance and Program that requires developers of new housing to provide a certain percentage of the units within the project to be affordable to very low, low or moderate income residents. 

For more information on BMR income limits, rents, and sales prices, please click here. 

The BMR Program requirements applies to rental or for-sale developments of 6 or more units. A fractional fee is charged for projects consisting of 5-10 units. For developments consisting of 11 or more units, the requirement is:

  • 15% of ownership units must be affordable to moderate income households
  • 15% of rental units must be affordable to lower income households

For a detailed overview of the City's BMR Program requirements, refer to the BMR Program Guidelines. 

If you are interested in applying for affordable rental housing, including the City's BMR Program units, please follow this link to the Doorway housing portal. Please note that the City does not maintain its waiting list for affordable housing. 

If you are interested in BMR ownership housing, please reach out to housing@cityofsanmateo.org. 

The Commercial Linkage Fee

The City Council adopted and Affordable Housing Commercial Linkage Fee on September 6, 2016, which went into effect November 5, 2016. The Commercial Linkage (CLF) is charged to new non-residential construction such as office, hotel, medical, retail, and restaurants. These new spaces will increase the number of workers, which creates a demand for housing. The fees collected are then to be used to support the creation or preservation of affordable housing to assist the workers who will make lower or moderate wages - those who cannot afford the current housing market prices.

The CLF applies to all net new commercial square footage over 5,000 square feet. Developers may also provide affordable units in-lieu of payments of the CLF. For an overview of how to calculate the CLF, which types of projects are exempt from the fee, and alternatives, please refer to the CLF Handout, linked below. 

For current fees, see City Comprehensive Fee Schedule

For Planning Applications, see Planning Resources Documents | San Mateo, CA - Official Website