§ 17.04

It is the intent of the Board of Supervisors in adopting this Section to establish and to codify in the County of Nevada ordinances the procedures by which any person or party may file a protest and any litigation against the County contesting the propriety of the imposition of any development fee or other exaction as a condition of the approval of any development or development project (as those terms are defined in Cal. Gov't Code §§ 65927 and 65928, respectively). To the extent that such procedures are established by State law, it is the intent of the Board that all applicable provisions of State law will be fully implemented within the County of Nevada, and to the extent that any reference is made herein to State law, such reference shall be made to the applicable code sections as they exist on November 10, 1992, and to any subsequent amendments thereto. To the extent that State law does not control, it is the intent of the Board to establish procedures and requirements which shall control as to the matters covered by this Section.

(Ord. 2531. (10/24/2023))

Any person or party on whom a fee, dedication, reservation, or other exaction has been imposed, the payment of which is required as a condition of approval of any development or development project (as defined in Cal. Gov't Code § § 65927 and 65928, respectively), may protest the imposition of any such fee or other exaction. Any such protest shall be filed in accordance with the provisions of Cal. Gov't Code § 66020 (including any subsequent amendments thereto) within ninety (90) days of the date of the imposition thereof.

For the purposes of this Section, the imposition of any fees, dedications, reservations, or other exactions occurs when the condition requiring the payment or dedication is incorporated into the approval of any development (project) through the approval of a tentative subdivision map or through the issuance of any use permit, site plan (permit), variance or any similar zoning permit.

(Ord. 2531. (10/24/2023))

Any suit, litigation or other legal action to attack, review, set aside, void, or annul the imposition of any fees, dedications, reservations or others, including but not limited to, any request for the refund thereof, shall be filed within one hundred eighty (180) days after the date of the imposition thereof. As a prerequisite to the filing of any such suit, a protest shall be filed in accordance with the provisions of Section 17.04.020. Thereafter, all persons or parties are barred from any action or proceeding to contest the propriety of the imposition of any such fees, dedications, reservations or other exactions and are barred from alleging the invalidity of any such imposition in defense of any action brought to enforce same.

(Ord. 2531. (10/24/2023))

Whenever the Board of Supervisors finds that the County has imposed and collected any development fees which are in excess of the amounts which are reasonably required to be contributed by any development project or projects to: (1) offset the individual or cumulative impacts created by the projects on the infrastructure owned or operated or controlled by the County; or (2) pay for the estimated reasonable cost of providing the service or facilities by the County, which funds have been held by the County for less than five (5) years, then the Board of Supervisors may order the refund of such fees as follows:

A.

Prior to authorizing the refund of such fees to any particular project, the Board shall review the record of the approval of the development project (including any applicable environmental documents therefor) and any applicable studies concerning the imposition of the development fees to determine if: (1) the fees, when imposed, were unwarranted as not being reasonably necessary to offset the individual or cumulative impacts created by the development project, or are in excess of the estimated reasonable cost of providing the public service or facilities and/or (2) the need for the fees has been extinguished or reduced as the infrastructure has been provided by some other funding source, and/or (3) the need for the infrastructure has been eliminated.

B.

Whenever the Board is considering refunding development fees to all project applicants on a pro rata basis (i.e., a ten percent (10%) refund for all projects), the Board shall not be required to review individual project records, and instead the Board shall determine whether a refund is warranted based on any of the following findings:

1.

The need for the fees has been extinguished or reduced as the infrastructure has been provided by some other funding source; and/or

2.

The need for the infrastructure has been eliminated; and/or

3.

The amount of the fees are in excess of that which was needed to provide infrastructure to offset the impact due to development.

C.

Any action by the Board to refund development fees shall be taken at a regularly scheduled meeting of the Board which shall be preceded by a notice of the intent to consider the refund which shall identify the development project or projects and shall be published pursuant to Cal. Gov't Code § 6061 (publication once in a newspaper of general circulation) and shall be supported by evidence in the record.

(Ord. 2531. (10/24/2023))

In accordance with the provisions of Cal. Gov't Code § 66001, the Board of Supervisors shall annually review all accounts containing development fees paid to the County to determine if there are any funds therein which have been in the account for five (5) or more years. If there are any such funds the Board shall review the reason for the imposition of the fee in order to identify the purpose to which the fee is to be put and to determine if there is (at the present) a reasonable relationship between the fee and the purpose for which the fee was imposed. For any fee as to which the Board determines that there no longer is a reasonable relationship between the fee and the purpose for which it was imposed, the Board shall order the refund of the fee to the then current record owner or owners of the lots or units of the development project or projects on a prorated basis together with the estimated interest that was earned thereon while on deposit with the County.

(Ord. 2531. (10/24/2023))

TITLE 19. - CALIFORNIA ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY ACT CHAPTER 1. - COUNTY CEQA GUIDELINES AND PROCEDURES