COUNTY OF SAN MATEO

Inter-Departmental Correspondence

Environmental Services Agency

DATE:

January 7, 2003

BOARD MEETING DATE:

January 14, 2003

TO:

Honorable Board of Supervisors

FROM:

Marcia Raines, Director, Environmental Services Agency

SUBJECT:

Mid-Coast Development Mitigation Fees

Recommendation

Adopt an ordinance establishing a Mid-Coast parks and recreation development fee applicable to new residential development in the urban Mid-Coast area, and waive reading of the ordinance in its entirety.

Background

Based on direction from the Board of Supervisors and building on the idea to establish a standard of a specific number of acres per 1000 residents, the attached ordinance would establish a standard of 2 acres/1000 residents. The facilities proposed are those identified in the Mid-Coast Recreational Needs Assessment accepted by the Board of Supervisors on October 29, 2002. The fee, based on the 2 acre standard, would be set at $1.17 per square foot of residential development.

Discussion

The proposed ordinance would put in place a fee that will be one of the funding mechanisms needed to implement a plan to create a new park and recreation system of parks and facilities designed to serve the needs of local residents of the Mid-Coast area. The previous draft proposal based on the Needs Assessment recommendations proposed a fee based on estimated cost of implementing the facilities plan and a description of what types of facilities would be needed to support the activities of the current population and those that would be needed by the future population at build out. The standard of acres per thousand residents recommended in the Needs Assessment was 6 acres per 1000 residents.

$16,533,000 (cost of providing 6 acres of park per 1000 new residents)

4,679,850 (total square footage of estimated new residential development) = $3.53/sq.ft

This fee would translate to the following average fees based on the estimated size of each type of unit:

Average fee for single-family dwelling (2250 sq.ft.) = $7,948.81

Average fee for multi-family unit (1200 sq.ft.) = $4,239.37

Average fee for second or caretaker unit (800 sq.ft.) = $2,826.24

Based on an historical average of approximately 50 units that are built per year, the estimated amount of fees at this rate would be approximately $364,351.

The ordinance as currently drafted now proposes a system based on a standard of 2 acres per 1000 residents. The proportional cost of providing that service for future population is $5,511,000.00. The fee based on that cost is as follows:

$5.511.000.00 (cost of providing 2 acres of park per 1000 new residents)

4,679,850 (total square footage of estimated new residential development) = $1.17/sq.ft.

At that rate the average estimated cost would be:

Average fee for single-family dwelling (2250 sq.ft.) = $2,649.60

Average fee for multi-family unit (1200 sq.ft.) = $1,413.12

Average fee for second or caretaker unit (800 sq.ft.) = $ 942.08

Based on an average of 50 units per year of development, the estimated amount of fees at this rate would be approximately $121,450 annually.

Vision Alignment

This proposal keeps the commitment of preserving and providing people access to our natural environmental and Goal 16 "Residents have nearby access to green space such as parks and recreational opportunities" Adopt of the fee would provide funds to purchase more park lands and make funds available to develop them.

Fiscal Impact

There is a positive impact in that new funding would be available that could be used to match other funding sources. There could be an unknown amount of operation and maintenance costs for these facilities. Under the current plan, there would be no impact on Net County Cost for acquisitions. The Task Force chaired by Supervisor Gordon will address other financing issues as well as that of governance.