Sometimes it doesn’t pay to wait.
After discussing raising developer fees in the city over the past three months, the Santee City Council on Jan. 8 agreed to increase developer impact fees, some by more than 100%, for the first time in 19 years
“This is a lot, and it’s a lot because it’s a lot at one time,” said City Councilmember Rob McNelis. “You have to go back to the fact that this hasn’t been addressed in 20 years, unfortunately. And any time you wait 20 years to address a small leak, that leak is no longer a small leak. The damage is done. It’s cracked the slab.”
The one-time fees are collected from developers of commercial, industrial and residential projects to offset the impact construction has on traffic, roads and other areas. Fees are collected by the city from developers and collected by the city when building permits are issued.
Since 2005, the fees had been automatically adjusted for inflation each year, either by 2% or the previous year’s consumer price index, whichever was greater, but the city had not formally adopted an update since then.
New legislation has modified the way the fees are calculated, and changes included calculating residential fees by square footage rather than a per-unit assessment, a move intended to make smaller homes more affordable.
City staff members found fees in Santee were not keeping pace with what was needed to offset the new development, and increases were proposed as well as new fees for fire facilities, long-range planning and program administration.
City Council members were surprised at the increase when originally presented at an October workshop and pressed staff for more details and comparisons with other cities, but eventually accepted them as needed.
The increase for single-family homes will jump 35%, from $12.84 to $17.44 a square foot, a multi-family home will increase 30%, from $14.12 to $18.39 a square foot.
Non-residential commercial projects will jump 39%, from $13,224 to $18,323 a unit, non-residential office units will be up 126%, from $5,017 to $11,361, and non-residential industrial units will increase 19% from $2,973 to $3,528.
A second reading of the ordinance is scheduled for Jan. 22, with the fees becoming effective 60 days later.
