CITY OF NATIONAL CITY
M E M O R A N D U M
DATE: November 3, 2025
TO: Mayor, Vice Mayor and Councilmembers
FROM: Scott Huth, Interim City Manager
SUBJECT: Updated Staff Recommendation for 11-04-25 City Council Meeting Agenda Item No. 11. 1 – Public Hearing – 2025 Development Impact Fees Schedules On October 30, 2025, members of the Finance Department met with two builders who are active in National City to discuss the new Development Impact Fees (DIF) that are slated to go before the City Council at the November 4, 2025 meeting. The builders had previously contacted the City with questions regarding how the new fees were calculated, and those questions were addressed in advance of the meeting by Richard Ruiz of DTA, the consultant engaged by the City to perform the DIF study.
The builders’ remaining concerns were with the amount of the increase in combination with the change in the methodology for determining them, and the implementation schedule. The resolution currently in the docket states that the new fees will be effective immediately following the required minimum ninety-day waiting period (February 2, 2026, if approved on November 4, 2025). The builders argue that implementing the fees immediately would create uncertainty surrounding projects that are currently in the permitting process and requested that the fees be gradually increased over a longer period to allow them to take the new fee levels into account at the project planning stage.
City Staff believes that the impact to the community from new construction has immediate impacts on existing residents, and that the City is subsidizing builders by not requiring them to pay their fair share of the new infrastructure costs associated with serving a larger population.
However, the builders raise a valid point that a major increase in DIF fees mid-project can be disruptive to building activity in National City. Therefore, Staff recommends that the existing 2005 fees be applied to those projects for which plans have already, as of the November 4, 2025 public hearing, been submitted to the City, but have not yet had building permits issued. For all projects for which plans are submitted after that date and for which building permits are not issued until on or after the effective date of the new fees, the new fees would apply.
Item 11.1 - Additional Information