The City Council established and adopted various Development Impact Fees in 1995 to pay for necessary infrastructure improvements needed to support new development projects within Brea. These included Traffic, Water, Dispatch, and Fire Impact Fees, which were established by Ordinance Nos. 966, 967, 968, and 969 respectively. An annual review of fees occurs with the budget process, with fee updates made as governed by the terms of the applicable impact fee ordinance or resolution. Since the inception of the Impact Fee Programs in 1995, there have been several resolutions adopted by City Council, which set the fees as shown below:
- Resolution 2011-096 for Traffic Impact Fees;
- Resolution 03-15 for Water Impact Fees;
- Resolution 06-105 for Dispatch Impact Fees; and,
- Resolution 06-104 for Fire Impact Fees.
Government Code § 66006 (GC Section 66006), commonly referred to as AB-1600, which was passed into law in 1988, requires that municipalities who impose Development Impact Fees provide the following information to the public annually for each fund within 180 days after the last day of each fiscal year:
(A) Brief description of the type of fee in the account or fund;
(B) Amount of the fee;
(C) Beginning and ending balances of the account of fund;
(D) Amount of fees collected and the interested earned;
(E) Identification of each public improvement on which fees were expended, the amount of the expenditures on each improvement, including the total percentage of the cost of the public improvement that was funded with fees;
(F) Identification of an approximate date by which the construction of the public improvement will commence if the local agency determines that sufficient funds have been collected to complete financing on an incomplete public improvement, as identified in paragraph (2) of subdivision (a) of Section 66001, and the public improvement remains incomplete;
(G) Description of each interfund transfer or loan made from the account of fund, including the public improvement on which the transferred or loaned fees will be expended, and, in the case of an interfund loan, the date on which the loan will be repaid, and the rate of interest that the account or fund will receive on the loan; and,
(H) Amount of refunds made pursuant to subdivision (e) of Section 66001 and any allocations pursuant to subdivision (f) of Section 66001.
Furthermore, GC § 66006 requires the local agency to review said information not less than 15 days after the information is made available to the public at the next regularly scheduled public meeting. Therefore, staff has prepared said information within an Annual Report, which will be made available to the public (see attached Development Impact Fee Program Annual Report).
Some of the needs for capital facilities to accommodate new growth identified during past nexus studies have been addressed through the completion of capital projects and purchases of equipment and facilities. The Nexus Fee Program continues to make progress annually to complete the nexus improvements as stated within each respective study.
Traffic Impact Fee Program
As stated previously, Ordinance No. 966 established the Traffic Impact Fee Program and Resolution 95-51, as adopted by the City Council in May of 1995, approved the Traffic Nexus Studies and set the fees. The approved traffic studies identified 18 intersection and link locations in the City, which would require improvements due to the impacts of future development. The fee program identified these improvements with an estimated cost of $44 Million. Of this $44 Million, $34 Million was associated with the new development impacts and allocated into four (4) Fee Districts within the City Limits. This Nexus cost was then used to set the individual impact fees for residential and commercial/office/industrial development.
In 2011, an update to the Traffic Nexus Fee Study was completed using the Brea Area Traffic Model (“BATM”) which further updated the required nexus improvements with costs as associated with future development. This study concluded that 1/2 of the original nexus improvements were completed, some were redefined, and the others were deemed not required as part of the Master Plan of Highways. Therefore, this list of future improvements was updated to depict eleven (11) projects with a total Nexus cost of $19.4 Million. The balance of the Fee Program at that time was estimated at over $10.5 Million, whereby the new Fees were set based on the difference of approximately $8.9 Million. In December of 2011, the City Council approved the 2011 Traffic Nexus Fee Study and adopted Resolution 2011-096, which set the new fees and consolidated the fee program districts from four to one. These Projects have been identified in the City’s Capita Improvement Program.
Several of the Projects within the Traffic Nexus Fee Program, such as: the SR-57/Lambert Interchange Project and Imperial/SR-57 Interchange Project, require extensive work and coordination with Caltrans and the Orange County Transportation Authority for oversight and the regional funding share. The 2011 study estimated these improvements to cost a combined $39.5 Million.
Water Impact Nexus Program
Ordinance No. 967 initiated the Water Nexus Fee Program and established the fees via Resolution 95-52. In 2002, the City conducted a study entitled “Water Master Plan Update”, which was used to determine the need for future water infrastructure as the result of future development. Additionally a report was completed entitled “City of Brea Water Master Plan Update Recommended Water Impact Fees” which was used to update the impact fees. In March 2003, the City Council adopted Resolution 03-15 to set the Water Impact Fees into three (3) water districts. Additionally, Resolution 03-15 provided a provision to update the Water Impact Fees annually to account for inflation using the Engineering News Record 20-City Construction Cost Index. In 2009, the Water Master Plan was updated again, which identified 11 capital projects with cost estimates for the nexus improvements for a total program cost of approximately $5 Million.
Additional Information:
At the July 21, 2020 City Council Meeting, City Council asked for confirmation and justification for the water impact fee amount for District 2, Zone 1050. In short, the water impact fee for this zone is in fact $85,428. The fee for this zone was last set by the 2002 Water Impact Fee Study and has been adjusted for inflation every year since then. The fee takes into account the cost of the required infrastructure that is needed to provide for the projected water demand of the area. The identified infrastructure needs include transmission water mains, proportional cost for a new reservoir and a booster pump station. The cost of this infrastructure is divided by the projected number of 1" meter equivalents. The resulting fee is much higher as compared to the other zones due to high projected infrastructure cost and relatively low number of 1" equivalent meters (45) as compared to the other zones. The low number of 1" meter equivalents is due to the limited development within the challenging terrain of this zone. The fee is updated annually using the Engineering News Record 20-City Construction Cost Index and is reported to the City Council as as part of this annual report.
Dispatch Impact Fee Program
Ordinance No. 968 established the Dispatch Impact Fee Program and Resolution No. 95-53 set the appropriate impact fees attributed to future development. In 2006, the City updated the Fire and Dispatch Impact Analysis, which provided a published study to reflect the impacts of future development. This study was incorporated into Resolution No. 06-105 that updated the impact fees, which was adopted by the City Council on December 19, 2006. In 2013, the City updated the Fire and Dispatch Impact Fee Study to reflect increases to costs since 2006. This study showed a general increase to the impact fees for both Fire and Dispatch Impact Fees, which was presented to Finance Committee on April 9, 2013.
Fire Impact Fee Program
Ordinance No. 969 established the Fire Impact Fee Program, and Resolution No. 95-54 set the appropriate impact fees attributed to future development. As stated previously, in 2006 and 2012 the City updated the Fire and Dispatch Impact Study. As with the Dispatch Impact Fees in the 2012 update, the Fire Impact Fees also increased, but due to the potential regionalization of the Dispatch Services, the study was not adopted by City Council and the fees remained the same. |