City planner outlines large proposed rise in Vacaville park development impact fees; options offered to soften increase

A technical briefing to the Vacaville Parks and Recreation Commission on the city’s proposed 2025 update to the parks Development Impact Fee (DIF) showed staff intend to raise the allowable fee to reflect higher construction costs and previously omitted “soft” costs, and offered council policy options that could reduce the proposed amount.

Nemo Gonzalez, park planner, told commissioners the presentation was “for informational purposes only” and that no decisions would be made by the commission. He said the update is driven by the Mitigation Fee Act and Vacaville Municipal Code requirements and responds to a fee schedule that, staff say, was not updated for roughly 30 years until the 2022 effort.

“Most of the capital improvement projects have soft costs,” Gonzalez said, noting that the 2022 update omitted soft costs such as environmental review and consultant fees. Adding those soft costs, together…