Fees & public finance
Mitigation Fee Act
Gov. Code §§ 66000–66025 — the statute disciplining California impact fees with nexus findings, fund accounting, deferred timing and 90-day protests.
Definition
The Mitigation Fee Act (Gov. Code §§ 66000–66025, enacted as AB 1600 in 1987) is the framework statute for every development impact fee in California. It requires an agency imposing a fee to identify its purpose and use and to find a reasonable relationship between the charge and the project's impact (§ 66001); to keep fee revenues in separate accounts, report annually, and re-justify unexpended balances every five years on pain of refund; to defer most residential fee collection to final inspection or certificate of occupancy (§ 66007); and to honor the pay-under-protest challenge procedure (§ 66020). AB 602 layered published nexus-study standards on top in 2021.
Why it matters in an underwrite
The Act bounds both the amount and the timing of the fee line. Deferred payment under § 66007 is a real carry-cost benefit on 18–30 month builds, and the five-year-finding refund remedy occasionally returns real money. The trap runs the other way too: a § 66020 protest must be filed within 90 days of imposition — miss the window and even an unconstitutional fee is generally unrecoverable.
Sources & related guides
See also
See the term in the law itself
Read the controlling text in the Code Library, or ask the AI how it applies to your project.
Last reviewed 2026-07-29. General information, not legal advice.