ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT
MEETING DATE: August 27, 2025 AGENDA CATEGORY: Hearings TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council
FROM: Zachary Meyer, Public Works Director
DATE: July 29, 2025
SUBJECT: Appeal Hearing to consider Traffic Impact Fees imposed on Planet Fitness, located at 11425 Stockdale Highway.
Planet Fitness is requesting to appeal the decision to impose Traffic Impact Fees at their new location 11425 Stockdale Highway in the “The Village @ River Oaks” Center.
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends City Council deny the appeal and uphold the Traffic Impact Fee imposed on Planet Fitness (Appellant).
BACKGROUND:
In 2018, Planning Commission approved a proposed Planned Development Review (18-0385) for a 73,800 Sq. ft. mixed-used shopping center at the SWC of Buena Vista Road and Stockdale Hwy. The initial Traffic Impact Fees for the shopping center were calculated based on an Average Daily Trip (ADT) of 79 trips/1000 sq.ft., based on Institute of Transportation Engineering (ITE 8 th Edition), and a trip rate ($167) per Resolution 084-09. The Appellant’s engineer also prepared trip generation calculations, determining an Average Daily Trip rate of 75.5 trips per 1,000 square feet for the shopping center. This rate was then used to calculate the final Traffic Impact Fees assessed to the shopping center.
On January 19, 2023, Planning Commission approved a revised Planned Development Review (22-0111) to include a Fitness Center, Car Wash and an additional Restaurant. A new traffic calculation was provided by Appellant’s engineer, showing an ADT of 80.72 trips per 1,000 Sq. ft. Traffic Impact fees for Planet Fitness and Car Wash were calcu lated based on the updated ADTs, resulting in a fee of $340,470.42 for Planet Fitness (Appellant).
The Appellant requested City use the current ITE 11th edition, as previous ITE editions didn’t provide data for shopping centers without a supermarket. The Public Works Director approved the request to use the 11th edition. Revised Traffic calculations were prepared by Appellant’s engineer for a shopping center with no supermarket. New Traffic calculations resulted in a lower ADT of 67.52 trips per 1000 sq.f t. ADT reduced to 67.52 resulting in a lower Traffic Impact fee to $284,793.89.
Despite the fee reduction, Appellant does not agree with the revised Traffic Impact Fees for the proposed Planet Fitness and requested it be treated as a standalone building. Public Works Director denied said request since Appellant is not a standalone building and is clearly part of a commercial shopping center (i.e. multiple uses, shared points of entry, shared utility access, shared common uses, etc.).
The Appeal Hearing was originally scheduled for February 26th, 2025, but Appellant’s attorney called the day of the hearing to cancel to a later date. City rescheduled the Appeal Hearing for 8/27/2025.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The traffic Impact Fees collected will pay for the construction of both regional and local infrastructure
facilities that are required to maintain Level of Service C for the Metropolitan transportation system. The proposed reduction in fees collected by the Appellant will not allow the City to invest what is required to keep our roads maintained and safer.
COUNCIL GOAL:
Reliable Infrastructure.
ATTACHMENTS:
Notice of Appeal Planet Fitness, 11425 Stockdale Highway, Bakersfield, California 93311
COUNCIL OPTIONS:
1. Deny the Appeal and uphold the Traffic Impact Fee imposed on Appellant.
2. Approve the Appeal and re -calculate the Traffic Impact Fee imposed on Planet Fitness as a Standalone Building.