ORDINANCE NO.
AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF
THE CITY OF MERCED, CALIFORNIA,
AMENDING CHAPTER 17.62, "PUBLIC
FACILITIES IMPACT FEES," AND REPEALING
CHAPTER 17.38 "PARK AND RECREATION
FACILITIES FEE" AND CHAPTER 18.40, "PARK
DEDICATION," OF THE MERCED MUNICIPAL
CODE.
THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF MERCED DOES
ORDAIN AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. AMENDMENT TO CODE. Chapter 17.62
"Public Facilities Impact Fees," of the Merced Municipal Code is hereby amended to read as follows:
"Chapter 17.62
PUBLIC FACILITIES IMPACT FEES
17.62.010 Purpose.
17.62.020 Periodic Review.
17.62.030 Impact Fee Calculation.
17.62.040 Public Facilities Impact Fee
Established.
17.62.045 Reserved.
17.62.050 Collection and Expenditure of Fees.
17.62.060 Developer Construction of Facilities.
17.62.070 Refund of Impact Fees.
17.62.080 Administrative Guidelines.
17.62.090 Severability.
17.62.100 Calculation - Special Determination.
17.62.010 Purpose.
In order to implement the goals and objectives of the
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1 City of Merced's ("City") General Plan and to
mitigate the impacts caused by future development in
Merced, certain public facilities must be or have been
required to be constructed, and/or compensation
measures must be or have been required to be taken to
offset resources lost due to the future development.
The City Council has determined that public facilities
impact fees are needed in order to finance these public facilities, and/or compensation measures, and to pay
for each development's fair share of the construction
costs of these improvements, and/or the costs of the
compensation measures. In establishing the fees, the
City Council has found the fees to be consistent with
its General Plan and pursuant to Government Code
Section 65913.2 has considered the effects of the fee
with respect to the City's housing needs as established in the Housing Element of the General Plan.
17.62.020 Periodic Review.
The City of Merced shall review the public facilities
impact fees on an annual basis to determine whether
the fee amounts are reasonably related to the impacts
of developments and whether the described public
facilities are still needed. The City Engineer shall be responsible for preparation of an annual report stating the amount of fees collected, the purposes for which
the fees were collected, and the status of all projects proposed to be funded under this Chapter.
17.62.030 Impact Fee Calculation.
The City of Merced has conducted a needs assessment
for capital improvements within the City's specific
urban development plan area for which fees are to be
levied. The needs assessment, known as the public
facilities financing plan and impact fee update (the
"plan"), adopted in May 1998, revised in July 2003,
and further revised in January 2006, October 2012,
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2 and December 2021, has identified level of service
standards, public facilities capital improvement needs, and has distinguished existing from future needs, and
is approved.
The data sources and methodology upon which fees
are based are available for public inspection at the City Clerk's office during regular business hours. The
amount of the fees imposed have been based upon
reasonable estimates of capital costs of public facilities expansions that will in probability be incurred by local government as the result of new development.
The City Council further finds:
A. The provision of new, expanded, or otherwise
enhanced public facilities, for which a fee is charged, are reasonably related to the needs created by new
development;
B. The fees imposed do not exceed the
proportionate share of the costs incurred, or to be
incurred, by the City of Merced in accommodating
new development. The following factors have been
considered in determining proportionate share:
The need for public facilities capital
improvements required to serve new
development, based on a capital
improvement program that shows
deficiencies in capital facilities serving
existing development, and the means,
other than impact fees, by which any
existing deficiencies will be eliminatec
within a reasonable period of time, anc
that shows additional demands anticipated
to be placed on specified capital facilities
by new development,
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3 2. The cost of existing public facilities
capital improvements.
17.62.040 Public Facilities Impact Fee
Established.
1. A public facilities impact fee is hereby
established on issuance of building permits for
development in the City of Merced to pay for
municipally owned public facilities, including, but not limited to, fire stations, police stations, community
park and recreation facilities, traffic related
improvements, bikeways facilities, public works
facilities, and information technology infrastructure.
2. The benefit and impact area on which the public
facilities impact fee is imposed, the municipally
owned public facilities to be financed, the estimated
cost of these facilities, and the reasonable relationship between the fee and the various types of new
developments are as set forth in the plan.
3. Effective as of March 23, 2022, the amount of
the public facilities impact fee shall be as set forth in Table I below:
TABLE I
Per Dwelling Per Room Per 1,000 Sq. Ft. of Building Space Residential Commercial Industrial
Single Multi- Lodging Retail Office Industrial
Family Family
$11,671 $8,520 $3,293 $13,940 $12,420 $5,400
4. Effective as of March 26, 2022, the amount of
the public facilities impact fee shall be as set forth in Table I and shall thereafter be adjusted annually
beginning January 1, 2023, in accordance with the
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4 Engineering Construction Cost Index as published by
the Engineering News Record.
17.62.045 Reserved.
Editor's note(s)-Ord. No. 2400, § 3, adopted Dec. 3,
2012, repealed § 17.62.045, which pertained to
temporary reduction n public facilities impact fees for specific residential properties and derived from Ord.
No. 2360, § 2, adopted Oct. 4, 2010.
17.62.050 Collection and Expenditure of Fees.
A. The revenues raised by payment of the public
facilities impact fee shall be placed in a separate and special account and such revenues, along with any
interest earnings on that account, shall be used for the following purposes:
To pay for design and construction of
designated public facilities and reasonable
costs of outside consultant studies related
thereto;
2. To reimburse the City for designated
public facilities constructed by the City
with funds (other than grants or gifts)
from other sources;
To reimburse developers who have
designed and constructed designated
public facilities which are oversized with
supplemental size, length or capacity; and
To pay for and/or reimburse costs of
program development and ongoing
administration of the public facilities fees
program.
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5 B. Within five (5) years of the date of collection,
fees provided for under this Chapter shall be
expended, encumbered or committed for the
construction of public facilities capital improvements.
C. A developer of any project subject to the fee
described in this Chapter may apply to the City
Council for a reduction or adjustment to the fee, or
waiver of all or a portion of the fee, based upon the
absence of any reasonable relationship or nexus
between the impacts of that development and either
the amount of the fee charged or the type of facilities to be financed. The application shall be made in
writing and filed with the City Clerk not later than: (1) ten (10) days prior to the date set for City Council
consideration of the first development approval for the project, or (2) if no development approval by the City
Council is required, at the time of the filing of the
request for a building permit. The application shall
state in detail the factual basis for the claim of waiver, reduction, or adjustment. The City Council shall
consider the application at the same time as the
development approval or at a separate hearing held
within sixty (60) days after the filing of the fee
adjustment application. The decision of the City
Council shall be final. If a reduction, adjustment, or
waiver is granted, any change in use within the project shall invalidate the waiver, adjustment, or reduction of the fees.
17.62.060 Developer Construction of Facilities.
Except as may otherwise be provided by development
agreement, whenever a developer is required to
construct a public facility described in the plan, which facility is determined by the city to have supplemental size, length or capacity over that needed for the
impacts of that development, and when such
construction is necessary to ensure efficient and timely construction of the facilities network, a reimbursement X:\Ordinances\2022\Planning\PFFP Update.docx
6 agreement with the developer and a credit against the fees, which would otherwise be charged pursuant to
this Chapter on the development project, shall be
offered. The reimbursement amount shall not include
the portion of the improvement needed to provide
services or mitigate the need for the facility or the
burdens created by the new development. The timing
and amount of the reimbursement or credit shall be
determined in accordance with the administrative
guidelines adopted pursuant to Section 17.62.080, and
shall in no event be owed until sufficient public
facilities impact fees have been collected for such
purpose.
17.62.070 Refund of Impact Fees.
Any fees that are not expended or encumbered within
the period established in Section 17.62.050 shall be
refunded to the fee payer or successor in title. The
amount repaid shall include principal and accrued
interest. Application for refund must be submitted to
the City within one (1) year of the date on which the
light to claim a refund arises. All refunds due and not claimed within one (1) year shall be retained in the
trust fund and expended per Section 17.62.050.
17.62.080 Administrative Guidelines.
The City Council shall, by resolution, adopt
administrative guidelines to provide procedures for the calculation, reimbursement, credit or deferred payment
of the public facilities impact fees.
17.62.090 Severability.
In the event that any provision or application of this
Chapter is held to be invalid, the other provisions and applications hereof shall not be thereby affected.
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7 17.62.100 Calculation - Special Determination.
A. The department of development services may
determine that any use, whether or not set forth in
Section 17.62.040, based upon a reasonable
relationship or nexus between the impacts of the
proposed development and the type of facilities
proposed, should pay a public facilities impact fee in
lieu of the fee established in Section 17.62.040.
B. Upon such a determination, the department of
development services shall, based upon criteria set
forth in the plan, calculate a public facilities impact fee for the development.
C. In the event the developer does not agree with
the determination, the developer may apply to the City
Council for a reduction or adjustment of the fee
calculated by the department of development services.
The application shall be made in writing and shall
comply with the requirements of Section 17.62.050."
SECTION 2. DELETION TO CODE. Chapter 17.38,
"Park and Recreation Facilities Fee," of the Merced Municipal Code is hereby repealed as follows:
"17.38 Repealed."
SECTION 3. DELETION TO CODE. Chapter 18.40,
"Park Dedication," of the Merced Municipal Code is hereby repealed as follows:
"18.40 Repealed."
SECTION 4. EFFECTIVE DATE. This Ordinance shall be in
full force and effect thirty (30) days after its adoption.
SECTION 5. SEVERABILITY. If any section, subsection,
subdivision, sentence, clause, phrase, or portion of this Ordinance, is for any X:\Ordinances\2022\Planning\PFFP Update.docx
8 reason held to be invalid or unconstitutional by the decision of any court of competent jurisdiction, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this Ordinance. The City Council hereby declares that it would have adopted this Ordinance, and each section, subsection, subdivision, sentence, clause, phrase, or portion thereof, irrespective of the fact that any one or more sections, subsections, subdivisions, sentences, clauses, phrases, or portions thereof be declared invalid orunconstitutional.
SECTION 6. PUBLICATION. The City Clerk is directed to cause a summary of this Ordinance to be published in the official newspaper at least once within fifteen (15) days after its adoption showing the vote thereon.
The foregoing Ordinance was introduced at a regular meeting of the City Council of the City of Merced on the day of , 2022, and was passed and adopted at a regular meeting of said City Council held on the day of , 2022, by the following called vote:
AYES: Council Members:
NOES: Council Members:
ABSTAIN: Council Members:
ABSENT: Council Members:
APPROVED:
Mayor
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9 ATTEST:
STEPHANIE R. DIETZ, CITY CLERK
BY:_
Assistant/Deputy City Clerk
(SEAL)
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
Kimbesteady 12i122
City Attorney
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10