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Oversight committee hears study to extend San Francisco childcare impact fee to residential projects
Summary
At a June 11, 2015 special meeting, the oversight committee heard a nexus study on extending the city's childcare impact fee to residential development; proponents said fees could generate roughly $5 million over 7—10 years to fund childcare facilities, and public comment urged moving the study forward. The committee filed the hearing for the record with no objection.
Supervisor Yi convened a June 11, 2015 special meeting of the oversight committee to hear a nexus study on whether San Francisco should expand its childcare impact fee to include residential development and to align collection citywide.
The chair said the study estimates (as reported in the transcript) residential fee rates at about $1.86 per square foot for projects over 10 units and $0.93 per square foot for projects below 10 units, with nonresidential projects at $1.59 per square foot. She said maximizing fees to those amounts could yield an additional $5,000,000 over the next seven to ten years to fund childcare facilities.
Why it matters: San Francisco officials and the city's childcare advocates say supply has lagged behind demand. Supervisor Yi cited demographic growth in the infant, toddler and preschool population and said the Children's Council's waiting list for subsidized childcare slots has topped about 3,500 names. Advocates and staff told the committee that a lack of capital funding—nearly $9,000,000 in unmet pipeline requests versus roughly $2,000,000 available for FY 2014—15—has delayed projects.
Public comment and next steps: Candace Wong, director of the Childcare Facilities Fund at the Low Income Investment Fund, told supervisors the study is "long overdue" and that additional fee revenue would help move stalled projects forward and position the city to leverage state and federal childcare subsidies. Supervisor Yi closed public comment and said legislation to expand the Childcare Facilities Fund consistent with the nexus study would be introduced in the coming weeks. The committee then approved a motion to file the hearing record with no objections.
Details and limits: The fee figures above are reported as stated in the hearing transcript; some figures appeared garbled in the record. The committee did not adopt an ordinance at this meeting; the hearing was filed and staff signaled forthcoming legislation that would be brought to the Board of Supervisors for formal action. The clerk noted that items acted on at this meeting will appear on the June 23 Board agenda.
