Development impact fees are imposed on new development projects in the City in order to mitigate the impacts of new development on the City’s capital facilities. The City of Rocklin charges impact fees for several types of facilities, including such facilities as transportation infrastructure, parks and recreation facilities, police stations and fire stations. As the City’s fees for parks and recreational facilities have not been updated since 1999 and 2005, respectively, staff retained the services of the consulting firm NBS to prepare a Development Impact Fee Study (attached) to analyze the impacts of new development on certain types of City facilities and to calculate impact fees based on that analysis. The methods used in this study are intended to satisfy all legal requirements of the U.S. Constitution, the California Constitution and the California Mitigation Fee Act (Government Code Sections 66000 et seq.).
The Study is organized into six chapters. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the legal requirements for establishing and imposing impact fees, and methods that can be used to calculate impact fees. Chapter 2 contains data on existing and future development that is used in the Study. Chapters 3 through 5 analyze the impacts of development on specific types of facilities and calculate impact fees for those facilities. (Chapter 3. Park Improvements and Trails; Chapter 4. Community and Recreation Facilities; Chapter 5. Police, Fire and General Government Facilities). Chapter 6 contains recommendations for adopting and implementing impact fees. Appendix A is a comparative fee survey for Rocklin and various nearby agencies.
In order to strengthen the City’s ability to continue to offer high quality parks and recreation amenities to existing and new residents, staff recommends the introduction of an ordinance that would modify the Rocklin Municipal Code to do the following:
1. Update the Community Park Fee, and rename it the Park Improvement Impact Fee.
2. Establish a new Trails Impact Fee.
3. Restructure the existing Public Facilities Impact Fee into two separate fees – the Community and Recreation Facilities Impact Fee (for recreational facilities), and the Public Facilities Impact Fee (for general government facilities).
An update to the Quimby fee is not being presented at this time, but will be addressed after completion of Council action to update the impact fees.
Park Facilities
New park facilities in the City of Rocklin are currently financed through the following mechanisms:
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First, developers dedicate land for new parks, or pay an in-lieu fee. This fee is referred to as the Park Development Fee, or the “Quimby” fee. Generally, larger development projects dedicate land, and small projects pay an in-lieu fee. This particular fee is not technically an “impact fee”, but is established pursuant to the Quimby Act, a statute contained in the Subdivision Map Act.
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Second, developers pay to build facilities on the dedicated land. This fee is referred to currently as the Community Park Fee, and is a development impact fee. The City Council enacted the Community Park and Recreation Facility Improvement Fees by Ordinance No. 799 on January 26, 1999, and adopted the current Community Park Fee by Resolution 99-82 on March 23, 1999, with the new fees effective on May 30, 1999. That Resolution set the fee at $711 per single family residence and $569 per multi-family residence which is the same amount that is being charged today.
The two-part program referenced above has not been updated in over twenty years. General best practices recommend an update of impact fee programs at least every five years. The failure to update the Quimby fee and the Community Park Fee has resulted in several problems:
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the City has accepted the dedication of more park property than it can afford to develop (total park acreage, excluding Quarry Park Adventure and the Sunset Whitney Recreation Area is 426 acres, of which 120 acres is undeveloped);
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the Community Park Fee is set at a level far below the actual cost of developing park land; and
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there is no identified source of funding for the development of trails.
Community and Recreation Facilities
In addition to community and neighborhood parks, the City has several community recreational facilities, such as the Rocklin Event Center and the Rocklin Community Center. Public Facilities Impact Fees are used to provide additional facilities. This impact fee was enacted by Ordinance 893 on March 22, 2005, and the Fee was adopted by the City Council by Resolution 2005-59 on March 8, 2005, effective July 1, 2005. That Resolution set the fee at $4,187 per single family residence and $2,130 per multi-family residence which is the same amount that is being charged today. This fee is also used to provide additional public facilities, such as police, fire and public service facilities.
Phasing in of Park Improvement Fee
Staff recommends the imposition of the Park Improvement Impact Fee, for all development types other than single family and multi-family residential, at the amounts proposed in the Study effective January 1, 2022. However, in recognition of the large increases for single family and multi-family residential projects, staff recommends the following phase in schedule:
Single family per-unit rate:
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$4,000 effective January 1, 2022
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$5,000 effective January 1, 2023
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$6,067 effective January 1, 2024 (adjusted thereafter annually by the consumer price index)
Multi-family per-unit rate:
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$2,000 effective January 1, 2022
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$3,000 effective January 1, 2023
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$4,045 effective January 1, 2024 (adjusted thereafter annually by the consumer price index)
General Plan Consistency
The proposed Park Improvements, Trails, Community and Recreation Facilities and Public Facilities development impact fees are consistent with the General Plan. Specifically, the fees further the General Plan policy of requiring new development to mitigate its impact on park development. The fees are consistent with the General Plan policies for open space outdoor recreation, as well as the policies for trails, bikeways and pedestrian ways. The fees further the General Plan public facilities and services element goal to provide high quality public facilities and a full range of public services to all areas and residents, and to ensure new development does not cause the inefficient use of such facilities. The fees are consistent with the General Plan policy of requiring development that generates the need for public facilities pay its proportional share of providing those facilities.
Next Steps
If the City Council introduces the subject ordinance at the October 12 2021 City Council Meeting, a second reading will be published for the October 26 2021 meeting, accompanied by a resolution changing the fees. If approved, the ordinance and fees will go into effect sixty (60) days after approval.