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HEARING - Chief Administrative Office recommending the Board to consider a request from the El Dorado Hills County Water District to adopt and authorize the Chair to sign Resolution 001-2026, approving the updated Fire Impact Fee Nexus Study and increasing development impact mitigation fees for the El Dorado Hills Fire Department.
FUNDING: Development Impact Fees.
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DISCUSSION / BACKGROUND
The California Mitigation Fee Act (Gov. Code §66000 et seq.) authorizes the establishment of fees to offset the impacts of new development on public facilities, ensuring that service levels are maintained as growth occurs. Because individual Special Districts lack the authority to impose these fees independently, the County establishes and collects the fees on their behalf. In compliance with the Mitigation Fee Act (“Act”), the revenue is deposited into separate, dedicated accounts for each district.
Fire impact mitigation fees were first collected on the District's behalf in 1985. The current fees are based on a Nexus Study (“Study”) that outlines the legal and policy basis for the development-impact mitigation fee within the District.
The District contracted with SCI Consulting Group to provide an updated Fire Impact Fee Nexus Study (“Study”) using the system-wide, existing facility-standard methodology. The facility-standard methodology is a commonly used method for determining fire impact fees.
To calculate the fee using this method, the current level of service is first determined by dividing the total value of existing fire protection facilities by the current service population to establish a per capita facility standard. Then, projected population and employment growth from new development are estimated and multiplied by the per capita standard to find the total cost of additional facilities needed to maintain the existing service level. The resulting cost is allocated across different land use types based on their expected demand for fire services, demo...
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