Yucca Valley Municipal Code Ch. 3.40 Development Impact Fees

A. This chapter establishes development impact fees, consisting of each of the fees set forth in this chapter. The development impact fee is intended to recover from each new development its reasonable share, as determined in accordance with Government Code section 66000 et seq., of the cost of each type of public facility and infrastructure improvement for which a fee is established hereunder, and needed to serve that development, to ensure implementation of and consistency with the town's general plan and to protect the public health, safety and welfare by ensuring that adequate public facilities and related improvements will be constructed and made available to serve new development concurrent with the need.

B. The town council has determined that the fees established by this chapter shall be collected from applicants of development projects for the cost of public facilities and infrastructure improvements that serve or will benefit each development, and to reimburse the town for expenditures previously made which benefit that development in accordance with the town's adopted development impact fee study, as updated and readopted from time to time.

C. The fees imposed under this chapter are in addition to any other fees, dedications, construction requirements or other exactions imposed as a condition of approval for the development project, or under the provisions of any state or federal law, other provisions of this code, or town resolutions, ordinances, and policies.

D. Wherever used, terms describing types of facilities and/or infrastructure improvements shall have the meanings given to them in the town's general plan and/or capital improvement plan as adopted and amended from time to time. (Ord. 173, 11-10-2005)

For the purpose of this chapter, the following terms, phrases, words and their derivations shall have the meanings given herein. Words used in the present tense include the future, words in the plural number include the singular number, and the words in the singular number include the plural number. Words not defined shall be given their common and ordinary meaning.

APPROVED PLANS: Plans approved under this code.

CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM: Planning, preliminary engineering, engineering design studies, land surveys, land or right of way acquisition, engineering, permitting, construction and inspection of all necessary features of any construction project.

COMMERCIAL: All those uses defined as commercial uses by the Yucca Valley development code, as may be amended from time to time.

DEVELOPER: A person, firm, general or limited partnership, corporation, limited liability company or other entity that excavates, fills, builds structures or otherwise improves or changes a specific parcel or tract of land.

DEVELOPMENT: The construction, alteration, addition, occupancy or use of any building or structure, or alteration of land, which allows a change in land use.

DIRECTOR: The town's director of public works/engineering or other town official that may be designated to carry out the administration of this chapter.

DISTRICT BOUNDARY: Any street or road, which is used to describe a district boundary.

EXISTING: At present or in effect as of the time of the adoption hereof.

FACILITY: Something that is built, installed, purchased or established to serve a particular purpose.

FEE PAYER: A person commencing a land development activity that generates a need for additional town facilities and requires the issuance of a building permit or permit for mobilehome installation.

FLOOR AREA: The area included within the surrounding exterior walls of a building or portion thereof, exclusive of any crawl space, area used exclusively for parking or loading, breezeway, attic without floor and any open porch, deck, balcony or terrace that is not used for commercial office or industrial purposes. The floor area of a building or portion thereof provided with surrounding exterior walls shall be usable area under the horizontal projection of the roof or floor above, where such horizontal projection exists. The town shall develop administrative procedures for determining the square footage of any project which cannot be calculated using this definition.

INDUSTRIAL: All those uses defined as industrial uses by the Yucca Valley development code, as may be amended from time to time.

MULTIPLE-FAMILY DWELLING UNIT: A building or portion thereof used and designed as a residence of two (2) or more families living independently of each other, with an individual kitchen for each, including duplexes, apartment houses, apartment hotels and flats, townhouses, garden apartments, group residential facilities and apartment buildings.

OFFICE: All those uses, defined as office or institutional uses by the Yucca Valley development code, as may be amended from time to time.

PERSON: Any individual firm, company, association, general or limited partnership, society, corporation, limited liability company or group, and includes the plural as well as the singular.

SINGLE-FAMILY RESIDENTIAL DWELLING: A building designed exclusively for residential occupancy for a single family, not including a hotel, motel, asylum or jail or other facility where people are housed by reason of illness or under legal restraint, and includes both attached and detached single-family residential dwellings. Units within manufactured housing parks and mobilehome parks are classified as single-family residential dwelling units.

SQUARE FOOT: Every square foot of "floor area" as defined herein. (Ord. 173, 11-10-2005)

No development, property owner, or other person or entity shall be eligible to receive building permits, or any occupancy permits, for any development project unless the provisions of this chapter have first been complied with for that project. The requirements of this chapter are hereby imposed as a condition of development approval for each development project in addition to being a requirement of this code. The town may impose such additional conditions of approval as are necessary or appropriate to implement the purposes of this chapter, including, but not limited to, reimbursement agreements for constructed improvements in accordance with town policies and procedures. (Ord. 173, 11-10-2005)

General facility, park facility, trail facility, storm drain facility, and street and traffic facility development impact fees shall be paid by applicants for development projects as set forth in this chapter and in the amounts adopted by the town council by resolution from time to time. No building permit, or occupancy permit, shall be issued for any new development project unless the fees specified in this chapter as adopted by resolution of the town council are paid. Fees collected pursuant to this chapter shall be deposited into a separate fund and used only for the purpose of acquiring, designing, constructing, improving, providing and maintaining, to the extent permitted by law, the general facilities provided for in the study and the plans as adopted and amended from time to time by the town council. (Ord. 173, 11-10-2005)

Credit against a development impact fee may be given for qualifying facilities and improvements constructed as part of each development project in accordance with town policies and procedures. The applicant shall be responsible for providing sufficient evidence of the eligibility and cost of such facilities and improvements to the satisfaction of the town engineer/public works director, who will determine whether the evidence is satisfactory to render a fee credit, and will determine the amount of fee credit, which shall not exceed the projected cost of such facilities and improvements for purposes of establishing the affected impact fee. (Ord. 173, 11-10-2005)

A. The amount of any development impact fee may be amended annually or from time to time by a resolution of the town council in accordance with the procedures and based upon the findings set forth in Government Code section 66000 et seq., for such fees. The town council may authorize by resolution annual adjustments to the impact fees to account for escalation in construction costs, based upon the figures published in the "Engineering News Record" building cost index - twenty (20) cities annual average. Land costs may be evaluated annually and adjusted as necessary based upon the current market conditions at the time.

B. 1. Within one hundred eighty (180) days following the last day of each fiscal year, the town engineer/public works director shall prepare for the town council and make available to the public an activity report covering the previous fiscal year identifying the current fee amount charged, the beginning and ending balance of fees in each trust account, the amount of fees collected and the interest earned, an identification of each public improvement on which fees were expended, the capital facilities to be constructed and the identification of an approximate date by which the construction of each facility to be constructed will commence if the town engineer/public works director determines that sufficient funds have been collected to complete financing of public improvement, that are incomplete or not yet commenced. In preparing the report, the town engineer/public works director shall adjust the estimated costs of the public improvements in accordance with the engineering construction cost index as published by "Engineering News Record" for the elapsed time period from the previous July 1 or the date the cost estimate was developed.

2. The town council shall review the report at a noticed public hearing held not earlier than fifteen (15) days after the report is made available to the public. Within five (5) years following the adoption of any impact fee authorized by this chapter, and every five (5) years thereafter, the town council shall make the findings required by Government Code section 66001 for all development impact fees authorized by this chapter. At any time, the town council may revise the development impact fee program to include additional projects not foreseen as being needed, provided that the appropriate findings required by the mitigation fee act and other appropriate state law are made.

3. In addition to the procedures identified in this section, the development impact fees and studies shall be comprehensively updated and adopted by ordinance or resolution after a noticed public hearing: a) in conjunction with or following a comprehensive general plan update; b) when the town council determines that growth has occurred at rates significantly above the estimates set forth in the general plan such that additional or different fees and facilities are needed; or c) when otherwise directed by the town council. (Ord. 173, 11-10-2005)

A. The town council hereby adopts the public facilities development impact fee study prepared by MuniFinancial, dated May 2, 2005, and the associated fees at the following levels indicated in subsection B of this section. Actual fees imposed by the town council shall be established by separate resolution of the town council. (Ord. 173, 11-10-2005)

B. The maximum fees that may be adopted by resolution of the town council shall be in accordance with the following maximum legally defensible fee levels:

(Ord. 217, 10-19-2010)

A. If a building permit for a project expires without commencement of construction, then the fee payer shall be entitled to a refund, without interest, of the development impact fee paid as a condition for its issuance, except that the town shall retain a reasonable amount, not less than thirty dollars ($30.00) nor more than five percent (5%) of the fee paid to offset a portion of the costs of collection, monitoring, and refund. The fee payer must submit an application for such a refund to the director within thirty (30) calendar days after the expiration of the permit.

B. Any funds not expended, encumbered, or scheduled pursuant to Government Code section 66001 by the end of the fiscal year immediately following five (5) years from the date the impact fee was paid (and for which the findings required by Government Code section 66001(d) are not made pursuant to Government Code section 66006) shall, upon application of the then current landowner, be returned to such landowner with interest earned during the five (5) year period; provided that the landowner submits an application for refund to the town within one hundred eighty (180) calendar days of the expiration of the five (5) year period.

C. Except as provided in subsection B of this section, the town shall refund to the current record owner on a prorated basis the unexpended or uncommitted portion of the fees, and any interest accrued thereon, for which a need cannot be established. (Ord. 173, 11-10-2005)

Pursuant to Government Code 65864 et seq., the town may enter into a development agreement with a developer, which includes provisions for reimbursement of the developer over time for the cost of financing public facilities. In the event a development agreement is entered into providing for such reimbursement in accord with applicable statutory/terms, no additional reimbursement shall be due or payable to any developer for construction of public improvements required by this chapter. (Ord. 173, 11-10-2005)

A. This chapter is intended to establish a supplemental method for funding the costs of certain public facilities, services and infrastructure, the demand for which is reasonably related to and thereby reasonably resulting from the level and type of new development proposed in the town general plan.

B. The provisions of this chapter shall not be construed to limit the power of the town council to impose any other fees or exaction or to continue to impose existing obligations on the right to development within the town, but shall be in addition to any other requirements which the town council is authorized to impose, or has previously imposed, as a condition of approving a plan, a development, rezoning, or other entitlement. In particular, individual property owners shall remain obligated to fund, construct, and/or dedicate the improvements, public facilities, and other exactions required by, but not limited to, town codes, public improvement design standards, and other applicable documents, and to mitigate environmental impacts caused by development pursuant to the California environmental quality act.

C. The town council may adopt a special benefit zone for the purpose of assessing a development impact fee when it finds that a townwide development impact fee is not sufficient to meet the needs for new public facilities in a localized area of the town. Any such change, as an additional development impact fee, must comply with the applicable provision of the state mitigation fee act, beginning with Government Code section 66000. The resolution or ordinance adopting the development impact fee within a special benefit zone shall include the method of calculation or formula for determining the amount of credit to be applied to the applicable townwide development impact fee, or provide that the fee shall be in addition to the applicable townwide development impact fee, without any credit or offset. (Ord. 173, 11-10-2005)

A. The town shall have twelve (12) months from the effective date hereof to establish a schedule for the construction and/or acquisition of facilities identified in the study. Except for facilities specifically approved for construction by a developer, all facilities shall be constructed in accordance with the annual review of the fee programs and further, as specifically approved annually by the town council as part of its budget, fee review, or capital improvement plan. The requirements of this section are in addition to the requirements of the state mitigation fee act, Government Code sections 66001 and 66005. (Ord. 173, 11-10-2005)

A. The following uses are exempt from the payment of development impact fees:

1. Any addition of enclosed building space to a single-family dwelling shall be exempt from the development impact fees if the proposed addition will not change the character of the building as a single-family dwelling.

2. Whenever enclosed building space is demolished, any construction of enclosed building space which takes place on the same parcel within five (5) years of that demolition, accomplished under proper and authorized town building permits, shall be exempt from development impact fees to the extent of the number of square feet removed from the parcel as a result of said demolition work to the preexisting structure.

3. Low income residential housing, as defined by state redevelopment law, when low income housing restrictions have been approved by the Yucca Valley town council/Yucca Valley redevelopment agency and necessary agreements entered into.

4. Government and public buildings.

5. The rehabilitation and/or reconstruction of any nonresidential structure where there is no net increase in square footage. Any increase in square footage shall require the payment of the current applicable rate for the new floor area only.

6. Residential units that have been issued a building permit prior to the effective date of this chapter.

7. Nonresidential projects that have been issued a building permit prior to the effective date of this chapter.

8. Vesting tentative maps which have been approved, conditionally approved, or for which an application has been determined by the town to be complete prior to the effective date of this chapter.

B. Any claim of exemption must be made no later than the time of application for a building permit. Any claim not so made shall be deemed waived. (Ord. 173, 11-10-2005)

There may also be those circumstances where the town desires to defer, waive or reduce development impact fees upon a project because: a) a development project will provide a general benefit to the health, safety and welfare of the citizens of the town of Yucca Valley, b) other properties to be benefited by any development impact fee will not be unfairly burdened by the delay, reduction or waiver of said development impact fee, or c) the deferral, waiver or reduction in development impact fees will result in a fairer funding arrangement, and absent a waiver or reduction, the owner would receive insufficient or no benefit from the development impact fee imposed and would therefore be required, if the development impact fee were imposed in full, to pay more than his fair share for the benefit received. Therefore, upon making such findings, the town desires to empower the town manager to negotiate agreements to defer, waive or reduce development impact fees upon specific projects subject to acceptance of the required finding(s) and approval of such agreement by the town council. (Ord. 173, 11-10-2005)

A. The town council hereby authorizes the town manager to adopt any administrative procedures necessary to carry out the intent of this chapter. In addition, the town council may adopt by resolution any administrative procedures necessary to carry out the intent of this chapter.

B. All charges relating to development impact fees applicable to any project provided for in this chapter shall be deemed a debt owing to the town. Any building permit applicant or person subject to development impact fees, without first having paid all applicable charges in full, or otherwise violating a provision of this chapter, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

C. A violation of this chapter shall be a misdemeanor and prosecuted in the same manner as misdemeanors are prosecuted; under this code and upon conviction, the violator shall be punishable according to law. However, in addition to or in lieu of any criminal prosecution, the town shall have the power to sue in civil court to enforce the provisions of this chapter. (Ord. 173, 11-10-2005)

If any section, subsection, subdivision, paragraph, sentence, clause, or phrase in this chapter or any part thereof is for any reason held to be unconstitutional or invalid or ineffective by any court of competent jurisdiction, such decision shall not affect the validity or effectiveness of the remaining portions of this chapter or any part thereof. The town council declares that it would have passed each section, subsection, subdivision, paragraph, sentence, clause or phrase thereof irrespective of the fact that any one or more subsections, subdivisions, paragraphs, sentences, clauses or phrases be declared unconstitutional or invalid, or ineffective. (Ord. 173, 11-10-2005)