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Placer County to revise park impact fee program; staff to move from per-unit to per-square-foot AB 1600 methodology
Summary
Staff told the Parks Commission they are updating the county's 20-year-old fee program and nexus study to reflect current construction costs and state requirements: AB 1600/mitigation fees must be applied on an objective basis (staff proposes per-square-foot fees); staff also flagged a $3 million fund balance and possible shift to an annual application process for fee requests.
Placer County planners on Tuesday summarized a forthcoming update to the county's park and recreation impact fee program, including a statutory shift in how AB 1600 mitigation fees will be calculated and administered.
Principal Planner Kyle Smith told the Parks Commission that the county's existing fee program dates to 2004 and uses both Quimby Act fees and AB 1600 mitigation fees collected across 16 fee areas. He said staff contracted Willdan Financial Services to prepare an updated nexus study and that the primary policy change will be updating unit costs to match post-pandemic construction realities.
Smith said state guidance requires an objective basis for AB 1600 fees and staff plan to move from a per-unit fee to a per-square-foot approach. "This is a statutory requirement for all impact fees," he said, noting the per-square-foot method would reduce the fee for smaller units and increase it for larger residences to better reflect use and impact. He emphasized example numbers offered in the presentation were illustrative, not final.
On fund balances, Smith reported the county has a little more than $3 million in park-impact fee funds and that many previously unspent balances have been committed in recent months to projects such as Hidden Falls expansions, Dry Creek Greenway phases, and Loomis drainage work. He also said staff is considering moving from a rolling intake of funding requests to an annualized application process to enable apples-to-apples comparisons of competing projects.
Smith said staff will bring the nexus study and technical updates to the commission and Board in the new year and seek policy direction on whether to continue spending at the 16-community level or to move toward regional spending aligned with the three subregions used by the nexus study.
