Council awards Hansen, Allen & Luce contract for annualized impact-fee updates and master plans

The San Joaquin City Council voted to award an engineering services contract to Hansen, Allen & Luce for a package of work that includes culinary water and pressurized-irrigation master-plan updates, creation of impact-fee facilities plans (IFFP), impact-fee analyses (IFA), annual impact-fee updates, and user-rate studies; the contract also covers sanitary sewer data-table work, IFA updates and user-rate studies. City manager/assistant (Norm) and consultant Chris Thompson described the approach as moving from 5-year updates to annual maintenance and certification to keep impact fees and capital plans current and defensible under state law. Staff said the contract work is intended to reduce large, episodic swings in fee charges and to better capture inflation and site-specific engineering over time. Norm told the council the contracts for the initial work this year will be covered by existing impact-fee fund balances for the year and that the ongoing annual updates are expected to cost roughly $16,000–$20,000 per year to be charged to the respective impact-fee funds in future budgets. He said if growth declines dramatically and impact-fee revenue falls, the city could choose not to fund an update. Councilmember Travis moved to award the work; council seconded and voted unanimously in favor. Why it matters: Annual updates to impact-fee data and master plans aim to keep fees aligned with current construction costs and avoid large, sudden fee increases that can disrupt development projects; staff and the Home Builders Association (engaged in prior work) told the council annualized updates can be more stable and reduce litigation risk.