Vallejo Municipal Code Ch. 3.06 Public Facilities Impact Mitigation Fee

This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the "public facilities impact mitigation fee ordinance." The city council finds that new residential, commercial and industrial development will cause a need for construction of new public facilities in the form of new police buildings, an expansion to the corporation yard, a senior citizens' center, a library annex, and a cultural arts center, among other facilities. Additionally, new development will be serviced by other public facilities that originally were constructed to meet the needs of future development (for example, City Hall). These findings are based on studies, evidence and analyses before the city council at the adoption of the ordinance codified in this chapter, and policies announced or set forth in previous city action such as the adoption of the general plan.

(Ord. 1069 N.C.(2d) § 2 (part), 1989.)

For the purposes of this chapter, the following words and phrases are defined as follows. They shall be construed in such a way unless it is apparent from their use that a different meaning is intended.

A. "Hotel" means any building containing six or more guest rooms intended or designed to be used, or which are used, rented, or hired out to be occupied, or which are occupied for sleeping purposes by guests.

B. "Industrial-low employment density," as a subcategory of non-residential development, refers to:

1. Nonresidential property developed for industrial use types; i.e., uses that produce goods on site by methods not agricultural or extractive in nature, as described in the zoning title at Section 16.06.150 et seq.; or

2. Agricultural use types, i.e., on-site production of plant and animal products by agricultural methods, as described in the zoning title at Section 16.06.550 et seq.

C. "Mobile home" means:

1. A vehicle, other than a motor vehicle, designed and equipped to contain one or more dwelling units to be used without a permanent foundation, and which is in excess of eight feet in width and forty feet in length; or

2. A dwelling unit having a permanent foundation system, which is transported to the site, which is a minimum twenty feet in width, which was either constructed after September 15, 1971, and has an insignia of approval from the California Department of Housing and Community Development; or constructed after July 1, 1976, and has an insignia of approval from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and which has not been altered in violation of applicable codes.

D. "Motel" means a building or a group of buildings containing individual sleeping units, designed for use by automobile tourists or transients, with garage or parking space conveniently located to each unit.

E. "Multifamily dwellings" means all residential units developed in the city other than single-family dwellings, hotels, or motels.

F. "Office-high employment density" means:

1. All civic use types described in the zoning title at Section 16.06.090, except for governmental use types; or

2. Uses identified as commercial use types in the zoning title at Section 16.06.230 et seq. that provide services, as opposed to distributing, selling, or renting goods. A nonexhaustive list of office-high employment commercial use types includes: administrative and professional services, building maintenance services, business support services, communications services, finance services, insurance services, real estate services, medical services, functional community training person services, general personal services, and research services.

G. "Retail-medium employment density" means all commercial use types identified in the zoning title at Section 16.06.230 that do not fall within the classification of office-high employment density. These use types include: agricultural supplies and services, animal sales and services, automotive and equipment (establishments or places of business), building maintenance services, business equipment sales and services, construction sales and services, convenience sales and personal services, eating and drinking establishments, explosive storage, food and beverage retail sales, funeral and interment services, gasoline sale, laundry services, participant sports and recreation, consumer repair services, retail sales, scrap operations, spectator sports and entertainment, transient habitation, wholesaling, storage, and distribution.

H. "Single-family dwelling" means one single, detached family residential unit on a legal lot; any accessory dwelling unit (defined in the zoning title at Section 16.04.011 and meeting the requirements of Section 16.57.020.DD) shall not be considered a separate unit.

I. "Unit" refers to an increment of development measured by:

1. Dwellings, in the case of single-family or multifamily residential uses, that are intended to be occupied exclusively by one household;

2. Rooms or suites, in a case of motels and hotels, intended to be used as separate or separable sleeping quarters; and

3. Any new dwellings, rooms, suites, or (for nonresidential uses) square feet for which payment is due under Section 3.06.040.

(Ord. 1069 N.C.(2d) § 2 (part), 1989; Ord. No. 1804 N.C.(2d), § 2, 9-25-2018)

The city council may establish, by resolutions adopted in conformance with this chapter, fees to provide funding for required public facilities for the city. Fees will be paid for any new structure, as well as for modifications or alterations to existing structures that increase the number of units or gross floor area, as applicable.

A. Adoption of Fees. Fees shall be adopted, and their rates shall be calculated, by resolution of the city council. Any resolution so establishing or amending such fees shall include findings setting forth the following:

1. The purpose of the fee;

2. The use to which the fee is to be put, including an identification of the public facilities such fees will finance. Such an identification may be made by reference to a capital improvement plan; may be made in applicable general or specific plan requirements; or may be made in other public documents identifying the public facilities for which the fee is charged;

3. An explanation how there is a reasonable relationship between the fee's use and the type of development project on which the fee is imposed;

4. An explanation how there is a reasonable relationship between the need for the public facility and the type of development project on which the fee is imposed;

5. An explanation how there is a reasonable relationship between the amount of the fee and the cost of the public facility or portion of the public facility attributable to the development upon which the fee is imposed.

B. Annual Escalation. Unless otherwise indicated, the fees established pursuant to this chapter will escalate annually the same percentage the latest "Engineering News Record Construction Cost Index" for the San Francisco Bay Area annually escalates. For the purposes of computing such escalation, the finance director shall use the statistics dating from March 1st of the prior year to March 1st of the year in which such calculation occurs. The fees establish under this chapter will escalate annually on July 1st.

C. Time of Payment. The fees adopted under this chapter shall be due and payable concurrent with approval and issuance of a building permit for a new structure. Fees will be paid for any new structure, as well as modifications or alterations to existing structures that increase the number of units or gross floor area (as define). However, fees for mobile home trailer lots shall be paid when the project water system is connected to the city's water system.

No city official or agency, including the city's building division, may issue a building permit, certificate of occupancy, or certify final inspection, as the case may be, for a development until the fees adopted under this chapter are paid in accordance with this section.

D. Except as otherwise provided expressly in this chapter, the provisions of this chapter shall apply to, and the fees adopted under this chapter shall be payable with respect to:

1. All development within the city for which building permits or other entitlements for development are issued on or after the effective date of the ordinance codified in this chapter or any resolutions adapted under it; and

2. All development within the city for which building permits or other entitlements for development were issued before the effective date of the ordinance codified in this chapter or resolutions adopt under it, if further permits are obtained; or for which permits or her entitlements were issued subject to a condition requiring the developer to pay fees to be imposed on all new residential, commercial and industrial development in the city.

(Ord. 1069 N.C.(2d) § 2 (part), 1989.)

The following rules apply regarding payment of the public facilities impact mitigation fees upon alteration of existing structures:

A. Fees will be paid when a structure is to be constructed on or moved to premises already containing a structure if such an activity requires a building or other permit; except that fees will not be charged for accessory dwelling units as defined in Section 16.04.011, if those units meet the requirements in Section 16.57.020.DD.

B. Regardless whether fees have been paid on a completed, existing structure, if it is altered or modified so that additional units are added, new fees shall be paid. New fees will be charged only for each additional unit.

C. Addition of a room to an existing residential unit does not constitute an alteration triggering an obligation to pay fees unless such an addition will create a new unit.

(Ord. 1069 N.C.(2d) § 2 (part), 1989; Ord. No. 1804 N.C.(2d), § 2, 9-25-2018)

A. Use of Fees. Revenues that the public facilities impact mitigation fee generates will be placed in a public facilities impact mitigation fee fund and segregated in separate and dial accounts. Such revenues, along with interest earnings on them, shall be used only for the following purposes:

B. Expenditure. Fees in the public facilities impact mitigation fee fund shall be expended only for the facilities the city council identifies by ordinance or resolution. Those fees also shall be expended only to accomplish the purposes for which the fees were collected.

1. To pay for design, acquisition and construction of designated public facilities and equipment; such expenses may include all reasonable costs of outside consultants and in-house administration to perform studies and other work related to such facilities;

2. To reimburse the city for designated public facilities it has constructed with funds from other sources. These funds shall not be used to remedy existing deficiencies in such facilities; however, this does not prohibit use of the fees to upgrade existing service levels or buy into existing facilities by requiring new development to pay for its pro rata share of such an upgrade or buy-in;

3. To pay for or reimburse the city for any administrative costs associated with design, acquisition or construction of public facilities and equipment.

(Ord. 1069 N.C.(2d) § 2 (part), 1989.)

Notwithstanding any other provision in this chapter, every development is responsible for payment of all other applicable fees and taxes the city has adopted, including but not limited to any other fees or taxes imposed under Title 3 of the Vallejo Municipal Code.

(Ord. 1069 N.C.(2d) § 2 (part), 1989.)

The following rules apply regarding payment of the public facilities impact mitigation fees upon alteration of existing structures:

A. Fees will be paid when a structure is to be constructed on or moved to premises already containing a structure if such an activity requires a building or other permit; except that fees will not be charged for accessory dwelling units as defined in Section 16.04.011, if those units meet the requirements in Section 16.57.020.DD.

B. Refunds. Refunds may be given when a building permit expires and no extensions have been granted for development for which the fee required under this chapter has been collected However, the claim for such a refund must be filed no later than one year after the expiration date of the building permit or any extension thereof.

(Ord. 1069 N.C.(2d) § 2 (part), 1989; Ord. No. 1804 N.C.(2d), § 2, 9-25-2018)

The provisions of this chapter shall not apply to any person, association, corporation or property as to whom or which it is beyond the power of the city to impose the fee herein provided. If any sentence, clause, section or part of this chapter or any fee imposed on any person or entity is found to be unconstitutional, illegal or invalid, such unconstitutionality, illegality or invalidity shall affect only such sentence, clause, section or part of this chapter, or person or entity as the case may be, and shall not affect or impair any of the remaining provisions, sentences, clauses, sections or other parts of this chapter, or its effect on other persons or entities. It is hereby declared to have been the intention of the city council that the ordinance codified in this chapter would have been adopted had such unconstitutional, illegal or invalid sentence, clause, section or part of the ordinance codified in this chapter not been included herein; or had such person or entity been expressly exempted from the application of this chapter. To this end, the provisions of this chapter are severable.

(Ord. 1069 N.C.(2d) § 2 (part), 1989.)