In a move designed to increase the number of affordable apartments in Mountain View, the City Council this week voted 6-1 to require developers to pay higher housing impact fees.

According to the resolution approved by the council Tuesday with John Inks dissenting, the impact fee charged for construction of new apartments will rise from $10.26 per habitable square foot to $17. To waive that fee, a developer would have to build roughly 7.7 percent of the units in an apartment project for below-market rental rates, Neighborhood Services Manager Linda Lauzze said.

In addition, the resolution increases the housing impact fees that developers of office, high-tech and industrial projects have to pay into an affordable housing account from $10.26 per square foot to $25 per square foot for projects that exceed 10,000 square feet and to $12.50 for those less than 10,000 square feet.

The new housing fees take effect Feb. 7.

The council exempted developers whose projects were approved on or before Dec. 10 from paying the higher amounts. That includes Merlone Geier Partners’ phase two of the Village at San Antonio Center and Greystar’s 801 El Camino Real West.

“I’m at this point not so concerned about getting every dollar of every project we can,” Councilman Mike Kasperzak said. “I really do believe the developers like consistency and I really don’t think it’s fair that we should impose the fee on any project that’s already been entitled. It’s been entitled based on certain economic factors and just to go in and, you know, increase the fees by 50 or 100 percent on projects that have already been entitled but haven’t picked up their building permits, to me really doesn’t seem fair.”

Email Rhea Mahbubani at rmahbubani@dailynewsgroup.com or follow her at twitter.com/RMahbubani.