1. Adopt a Resolution of the City Council of the City of Rocklin Approving and Adopting the Final Report Development Impact Fee Study Prepared by NBS, Dated April 18, 2022

    

2. Introduce, Waive Further Reading and Read by Title Only, an Ordinance of the City Council of the City of Rocklin Amending Chapter 3.16, Articles VI and VII of the Rocklin Municipal Code Regarding Parks and Recreation, and Public Facilities Development Impact Fees Applicable to New Development
   

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).   

New park facilities in the City of Rocklin are currently financed through the following mechanisms:

• 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. An update to the Quimby fee is not being presented at this time, but will be addressed after completion of City Council action to update the impact fees.  

• 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:

1. 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);

2. the Community Park Fee is set at a level far below the actual cost of developing park land; and

3. there is no identified source of funding for the development of trails. 

Based on feedback received from the City Council at the October 12, 2021 public hearing, staff and the consultant have revised the Development Impact Fee Study to define the residential impact fee categories, except for the age-restricted residential category, by unit-size ranges in square feet. direction received at the December 14, 2021 public hearing resulted in further refinement of the square footage categories. Calculating the fees based on unit-size ranges is a change from the City’s existing impact fees, which use categories based on the type of development (ie, single-family or multi-family residential). The charts below show the existing and proposed impact fees.

Existing:

Proposed:

Proposed Park Improvement Fee Phase In

If the Development Impact Fee Study is adopted, staff recommends the application of the updated fees, for all development types at the amounts proposed in the Study, effective January 1, 2023. However, in recognition of the increases for residential projects, staff recommends the following phase in schedule (adjusted annually thereafter by the consumer price index:

1. <600 sq. ft.: $3,254.32 effective January 1, 2023

2. 600 – 1,000 sq. ft.: $3,995.40 effective January 1, 2023

3. 1,001 – 1,500 sq. ft.: $6,379.76 effective January 1, 2023

4. 1,501 – 2,500 sq. ft.:

    a. $6,379.76 effective January 1, 2023

    b. $8,892.99 effective July 1, 2023

5. 2,501 – 3,500 sq. ft.:

    a. $6,379.76 effective January 1, 2023

    b. $8,892.99 effective July 1, 2023

    c. $10,439.60 effective January 1, 2024

6. 3,501+ sq. ft.:

    a. $6,379.76 effective January 1, 2023

    b. $8,892.99 effective July 1, 2023

    c. $10,439.60 effective January 1, 2024

    d. $13,532.82 effective July 1, 2024

It should be noted that adoption of Development Impact Fee study does not automatically authorize a change in the existing fees. The staff recommendation for phasing in fees is in concept only. Based on City Council direction during the public hearing, a separate resolution may be prepared and presented to the City Council for consideration at the June 28 2022 City Council meeting.

Next Steps  

If the City Council introduces the subject ordinance at the May 24, 2022 City Council Meeting, a second reading will be published for the June 28, 2022 meeting. The second reading may be accompanied by a resolution to implement the updated fees. If the ordinance is approved on June 28, 2022, it will go into effect sixty (60) days after approval; any update to fee amounts would go into effect as determined by the establishing resolution.

The Environmental Coordinator has reviewed the Fee Study and determined that it is not subject to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) because, pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15060 (c)(2), the activity (project) will not result in a direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment, and pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15061 (b)(3), the activity (project) is covered by the general rule that CEQA applies only to projects which have the potential for causing a significant effect on the environment. The Fee Study does not approve any specific development plan or activity, and it does not, itself, authorize the future construction of a development; therefore, the project does not have the potential for causing a significant effect on the environment nor will it result in a direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment. 

The Development Impact Fee Study estimates that:

1.     The projected revenue from Park Improvement Impact Fees would be $15,177,120.

2.     The projected revenue from Trails Impact Fees would be $1,321,355.

3.     The projected revenue from Community Recreation Facilities Fees would be $5,732,537.

The projected revenue from Public Facilities Impact Fee would be $12,943,852.