October 24, 2017
Tomorrow the City of Chico Finance Committee will review the 2 fees referred to them from City Council:
Urbanization - clarification on legality of this fee
Street Facilities - clarification on costs associated with projects
August 16, 2017
After a long and arduous process, the City of Chico presented the proposed updated Nexus Program (New Development Impact Fees.) The City Council addressed and voted on each of the fees individually with these results:
APPROVED New Fee (per unit: Single-Family)
#1 Population and Land Use Increment
#2 Administrative Building Fee $ 60.42
#3 Fire Facilities Fee $ 378.42
#4 Animal Shelter Fee $ 82.55
#5 Police Facilities Fee $ 404.92
#6 Sewer Trunk Line & $1,930.48
Water Pollution Control Plan Fees $1,609.08
#7 Bikeway Improvement Fee $ 668.84
#8 Greenways Impact Fee $ 415.52
#9 Park Impact Fee – Neighborhood $ 3,995.14
Park Impact Fee – Community (Scenario #1)
Park Impact Fee – Bidwell Park
#10 Street Maintenance Fee (Alternative #2) $ 156.87
Total Approved Fees $9,702.04
SENT BACK TO CITY FINANCE COMMITTEE FOR FURTHER REVIEW
#11 Urbanization Street Fee $ 675.62
#12 Street Facilities Fee $9,564.43
Total Proposed Fees $19,942.29
We were pleased to see some decisions made to keep the fees down. It is the opinion of CBA that street maintenance in Chico should be funded through other sources. New Development Impact fees simply isn’t a sustainable way to do fund this program. If and when construction slows or stops, roads will still be driven on and continue to deteriorate. So there needs to be another source of funding. It is the hope of the City that SB1 will help with some of this.
In the meantime, we’ll go to the Finance Committee (8/23) on a few of the fees: Urbanization – ensuring that this is a legal option for the City to require new homeowners to pay for streets that are currently below standard level of service. Nexus estimates population is expected to grow by almost 40,000 people – these people have not driven on a single street yet.
With Street Facilities, we are seeking more detail and clarity around the projects proposed in the fee. CBA and the Building Community believe firmly that Impact Fees help New Development pay their fair share but determining what that is and what is the responsibility of the Community is a complex issue.
August 15, 2017
City Council Meeting - Nexus Program to be discussed
Original Agenda Packet/ Staff Report
June 29, 2017
CBA has been working with Brendan Ottoboni, Public Works Director - Engineering, who has been part of the team revising the Nexus Program as well as Steve Borroum, consultant for the City. In these meetings, CBA has gained a better understanding of some of the fees and rationale behind each. While there is much to still be discussed and worked through, it has been helpful to share insights from both sides of the table to help make this program more equitable and realistic.
CBA is very aware that every fee increase effects house pricing, rent prices, costs to build commercial buildings, which in turn effects costs to do business in Chico. We are very dedicated to keeping an eye on every policy or regulation that impacts development and the people of Chico.
June 21, 2017
Because of a very full agenda, the Nexus Program was pushed until the August 1st City Council meeting. The plan is to discuss each fee, describe the fee to the Council, take public comment, and ask Council to provide direction to Staff. The entire document will be approved at a later meeting.
June 19, 2017
Nexus Program moves forward to City Council for potential approval at June 20th meeting. Any fee increases add more costs associated with building and compounds the problem of affordable housing in Chico. Some of these fees need to be closely examined and Council needs to come up with a better solution to solving the City's problems. New Development can not shoulder the expenses of street maintenance. Can any of these programs be funded through SB1?
Chico Enterprise Record Article
May 24, 2017
The City of Chico Finance Committee approved the updated Nexus (Development Impact Fee) Program to move forward to City Council for further discussion and action. The fee categories to be discussed are:
- Administrative Building
- Fire
- Animal Shelter
- Police
- Sewer-Trunkline
- Sewer - Water Pollution Control Plant
- Bikeways
- Greenways
- Parks-Neighborhood
- Parks - Community
- Bidwell Park
- Street Maintenance
- Urbanization
- Street Facilities
February 22, 2017
This morning the City of Chico Finance Committee met to discuss the proposed Update of the Nexus Program 2016-2040. With the length of the Nexus, and need to discuss each specific fee individually, only a few of the specific fees were discussed at today's meeting due to time constraints.
Here is a link to the Agenda packet
Addressed today were:
* Bikeways
* Sewer Trunk Lines
* Sewer Treatment Plant
* Street Facility
* Street Maintenance
Additional fees to be discussed in future meetings:
* Street Urbanization
* Parks
* Greenways
* Police
* Fire
* Animal Shelter
* Administration
Essentially, the City of Chico has proposed an increase to new development fees. What is proposed in this packet is an increase of a minimum of 3 times the current fees for residential development.
Concern was expressed at the meeting whether New Development should carry 100% of costs (Street Facility and Maintenance) for these programs as population growth is estimated at under 40% through the year 2040. New development should pay their "fair share," but that should not be 100%. Street Facility and Maintenance should be a shared expense with the City as asking new home buyers to pay for these programs is not sustainable. Should there be another recession or dip in the market, fees would decline and streets projects and maintenance would not be financed.
In addition, Government Code 66000 requires that the fees incurred upon development need to show a clear relationship between the purpose of the fee and the impact of the project.
Increasing fees equates to higher costs to new homebuyers, raising home prices throughout Chico.
Further discussion is needed to work through the City's need to fund these programs and the fair responsibility of New Development.