This study and supporting documents serve as the basis for requiring development impact fees under Assembly Bill (AB) 1600 legislation, as codified by the Mitigation Fee Act (California Government Code sections 66000 et. seq.).  This section of the Mitigation Fee Act sets forth the procedural requirements for establishing and collecting development impact fees.  These procedures require that a reasonable relationship, or nexus, must exist between a governmental exaction and the purpose of the condition.

• Identify the purpose of the fee.
• Identify how the fee is to be used.
• Determine how a reasonable relationship exists between the fee’s use and the type of development project on which the fee is imposed.
• Determine how a reasonable relationship exists between the need for the public facility and the type of development project on which the fee is imposed.
• Demonstrate a reasonable relationship between the amount of the fee and the cost of the public facility attributable to the development on which the fee is imposed.

As new development continues to occur in the City, additional public facilities will be required to serve future residents and employees.  The public facility costs allocated to new development reflect public facility improvements that are needed to accommodate future development while maintaining desired service level standards.  This Nexus Study computes future development’s share of future public facility improvement costs based on planned facilities or level of service standards as determined by the City related to some of the fee components and includes the outcomes of the technical analyses completed by other consultants for traffic, sewer, and water fee components (with references to the additional technical documents).  The development impact fee programs will not fund the construction of public facility improvements required to cure existing level of service deficiencies.  This study (and associated documents) updates and consolidates the following public capital facilities fees:

A summary of the results of the Nexus Study are provided in the tables below.  These tables show the maximum justifiable new development impact fees for example development prototypes for different land uses.  It is important to note that the actual fees charged to a project will depend on specific project development characteristics.  For all fee categories, the City can adopt development impact fees below the maximum level by removing proposed capital projects, reducing service standards, and/or increasing the use of other funding sources to support capital improvements.  For all development impact fees, the City Finance Department adds a 4 percent charge to fund the costs of fee program administration, collection, and reporting.

Summary tables include:

• Updated Fees. Table 1-1 shows the updated maximum justifiable development impact fees by land use category (under illustrative development project assumptions). For single-family residential development, this table only shows the updated fees for an average-sized single-family home in the City of Vacaville (homes in the 2,000 to 3,000 square foot range). Per City direction, fees will be differentiated by single-family home size with the full detail on the maximum justifiable fees for all single-family home size categories provided in Table 1-3. These numbers reflect the base fee and the 4 percent Finance Department administration charge.

• Existing vs. Updated Fees. Table 1-2shows the difference between the maximum justifiable fees for the illustrative project types under the updated maximum fee schedule and the City’s existing (2022) fee schedule.

• Updated Fees for All Residential Sizes. Table 1-3 shows the full detail on the updated fees on residential development. Distinct impact fees were developed for different size ranges of single-family homes where it was possible to differentiate the demand for capital facilities by home size range. As shown, under this approach, for most fee categories, smaller single-family homes will pay lower fees (for many fee categories) than the average home size, while large homes will pay higher fees. These numbers reflect the base fee and the 4 percent Finance Department administration charge.