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Calimesa council approves first reading of ordinance updating regional TUMF participation; public hearing held
Summary
City council held a public hearing on updates to the Western Riverside County Transportation Uniform Mitigation Fee (TUMF) program, heard WRCOG staff explain fee changes and modeling, and adopted first reading of Ordinance No. 408 by a 5-0 vote.
Calimesa City Council held a public hearing on proposed updates to the Western Riverside County Transportation Uniform Mitigation Fee (TUMF) program and voted 5-0 to approve the ordinance’s first reading.
City Engineer Mike Thornton told the council the item updates the city’s participation in the regional TUMF program and reflects a 2024 nexus study that reidentified eligible mitigation projects and revised fee calculations. “TUMF is a funding plan. It's basically a development impact fee,” Thornton said, adding that the program focuses on increasing regional road and interchange capacity to mitigate traffic from new development.
The nexus study uses Southern California Associated Governments (SCAG) demographic and traffic forecasts and a transportation model to identify which interchanges and corridors will need capacity increases. Thornton said the study separates costs for existing deficiencies — which are not charged to new development — from costs attributable to future growth. Cameron Brown of the Western Riverside Council of Governments (WRCOG) attended and was available for technical questions.
Council members asked for clarification on how fees are applied. Thornton and other staff emphasized that the fees apply only to new development at the building-permit stage and are typically collected and rolled into sale prices by developers rather than paid directly by current homeowners. He also explained why some nonresidential fee lines appear to have been adjusted and noted typographical errors in a staff slide that he corrected during the hearing.
Several council members and staff described local projects that have been advanced by TUMF funding or credit agreements, including past work on Desert Lawn Road, the Cherry Valley Boulevard extension and Singleton Road. Thornton and WRCOG staff said the program allows smaller jurisdictions such as Calimesa to share regional mitigation resources rather than funding major interchange improvements alone.
The council adopted first reading, by title only, of Ordinance No. 408 — "an ordinance of the City Council of the City of Calimesa amending and superseding Ordinance No. 351 to amend chapter 18.105 of the Calimesa Municipal Code to update participation in the Western Riverside County Transportation Uniform Mitigation Fee (TUMF) program" — and adopted Resolution 2025-01 (first reading action). The vote was 5-0.
Votes at a glance
- Motion to approve consent calendar items 2–7 and waive full reading: passed 5-0. (Council approved earlier in the meeting.) - Motion to approve corrected minutes of item 1, as amended with recusal clarification: passed 5-0. - Motion to adopt first reading of Ordinance No. 408 (TUMF participation update) by title only and adopt Resolution 2025-01: passed 5-0.
The ordinance requires a second reading at the next council meeting before final adoption. Staff said the fee schedule in the nexus study applies only to new building permits and that adjustments reflect project cost increases and changes in the regional project list rather than new taxes on existing homeowners. The council did not receive public testimony on the item during the hearing.
The council directed staff to return with the ordinance for second reading at the next meeting and to continue coordination with WRCOG on project-level funding and credit agreements.
