Cotati City Council
Agenda Staff Report
Item type: REGULAR AGENDA (ACTION)
To: City Council
Subject: CONSIDER A FIRE IMPACT FEE AND DEVELOPMENT
COORDINATION AGREEMENT WITH THE RANCHO
ADOBE FIRE DISTRICT
Date: August 12, 2025
Written by: Damien O'Bid, City Manager
Recommendation
It is recommended that the City Council adopt a resolution approving a fire impact fee and development coordination agreement with the Rancho Adobe Fire District.
Background
The Rancho Adobe Fire District (RAFD) provides fire protection and prevention services to the City of Cotati, unincorporated areas of Sonoma County around the City, as well as Sonoma State University. Currently, RAFD is in the process of implementing development impact fees to mitigate the impacts of new development and the increased demand for services it creates. To ensure appropriate mitigation of impacts, the RAFD Board of Directors directed their staff to develop a nexus study and appropriate mitigation impact fees.
On June 19, 2024, the RAFD Board of directors approved the nexus study and fees. However, RAFD does not have the legal authority to impose the fees and must rely on the land use authorities within its service area. Therefore, RAFD staff reached out to City and the County of Sonoma to request that both agencies consider adoption of their fee program within our respective jurisdictional limits.
On December 10, 2024, the City Council held a duly noticed public hearing and introduced an ordinance to implement fire impact fees on behalf of RAFD. Subsequently, the City adopted Ordinance 931 at the duly noticed City Council meeting on January 14, 2025, which will take effect upon City Council approval of a Coordination Agreement or March 14, 2025, whichever is later and is at least sixty (60) days after its adoption, pursuant to the Mitigation Fee Act.
Analysis/Discussion
Following the adoption of the Ordinance 931, staff from the City and RAFD began developing an impact fee and development coordination agreement (Agreement) to govern handling of the fire impact fee revenue and related reporting requirements, as well as general development review coordination.
The fire impact fees are fees assessed on new development, under the legal authority of the City.
To simplify accounting and coordination, the Agreement provides that RAFD will directly collect and account for the fire impact fees. Similar to the process for school impact fees, the City will not issue building permits until the applicant provides proof of payment of the fees.
With RAFD directly collecting and accounting for the fire impact fees, the Agreement obligates RAFD to provide timely accounting to the City for publishing annual and five year reports of mitigation fees. As mentioned earlier, the fire impact fees are established under the City’s authority, so the City is obligated to publish the associated mitigation fee reports. RAFD will be responsible for ensuring compliance with the mitigation fee act (other than City posting of fees reports).
The Agreement also memorializes the commitment that RAFD is aligned with the City if the City opts to lower or eliminate fees. Essentially, the Agreement states that if the City lowers development impact fees, the fire fees would be lowered or eliminated in a similar manner as other City fees.
The City does not have a municipal fire department, so the Agreement also establishes review timelines for development review by RAFD, to ensure timely reviews and a good customer service experience when building in Cotati.
Financial Considerations
There will be minor staff time related to coordinating and posting the fire fee mitigation fee reports (AB 1600 reports) when the City posts reports on the other City mitigation fees. If the fee collection shifts to the City, there is a 5% administrative fee that the City would collect to manage and account for the impact fees.
If the City reduces or eliminates impact fees, the City would be committing to handling the fire impact fees in a similar manner as other City impact fees. This could include some backfill of impact fee revenue. In the event of litigation around the fire impact fee, the Agreement will indemnify the City.
Environmental Issues
Where it can be determined with certainty that there is no possibility that the activity in question may have a significant effect on the environment, the activity is not subject to CEQA review.
This general rule can be applied to activities which could be subject to the CEQA process, but which logic dictates should not be subject to CEQA review. Therefore, based on the information provided above, the proposed resolution is exempt from CEQA pursuant to Section 14.03.021 of the CEQA Guidelines in that there is no possibility that the activity may have a significant impact on the environment.