San Joaquin city staff and a consultant presented a proposal Sept. 2 to move master-plan and impact-fee updates from an infrequent, costly cycle to an annual data-table update system. The approach is intended to reduce long-term costs, make fee calculations more defensible, and give developers more predictable fee projections.

Chris Thompson of Hansen, Allen & Luce described a system of data tables already used by other Utah cities that captures variables for master plans, impact-fee analyses and rate studies. He said the initial setup cost would be comparable to prior full studies but that recurring annual updates would be minimal by comparison — Thompson and staff gave a current example of roughly $70,000–$75,000 for the initial culinary and pressurized-irrigation (PI) updates and recurring annual update costs in the low thousands (the team quoted figures in the range of $5,000–$12,000 depending on scope).

Why it matters: City staff told the council that infrequent, large updates have left the city behind on fees during recent inflationary years and that missing inflationary changes can result in millions of dollars in lost fee collections. The proposed system would let the city update impact fees and master-plan tables each January using a single "data year," then publish adjusted fees at the start of the new fiscal year.

Consultant and staff remarks clarified legal and procedural constraints. Staff noted that state law does not allow impact-fee accounts to pay city staff time to produce the impact-fee study; the city must pay consultant fees from the impact-fee accounts. Staff also explained the city has had difficulty recruiting an in-house engineer for this work; the consultant said the firm brings subject-matter depth and cross-jurisdictional data that would be difficult and costly to replicate internally.

Council members asked several implementation questions, including whether the city would be locked into the firm, how termination would work and whether annual updates would harm developers. Thompson and staff said the contracts would be cancellable with advance notice, that annual updates produce predictable smaller changes rather than large swings, and that developers and the Home Builders Association have signaled support for more predictable annual adjustments.

Next steps: Staff said they will present a professional services agreement for council approval at a future meeting and that they will post a public-notice for a budget amendment from impact-fee accounts to pay the consultant work. No contract was approved Sept. 2.

Direct quote (from meeting): "When you miss on an inflation number, which every single impact fee and master plan missed over the last 5 years ... you lose millions of dollars in collections," said Chris Thompson, Hansen, Allen & Luce.