The Regional Development Impact Fee program was adopted by the Transportation Agency Board of Directors and each of the jurisdictions, then went into effect in August 2008. Under the requirements state law, as well as the provisions of the Joint Powers Agreement that established the program, TAMC is required to conduct a major update to the fee program once every five years. The first major update was completed and approved by the Board in June 2013, and subsequently approved by each jurisdiction. For this second major update, staff will be revisiting the technical work necessary to recalculate the regional fees to reflect any changes that may have occurred in the past five years, such as: updates to the regional travel forecast model, the expected pace of development, changes in land use plans including general plan updates, transportation improvement project need and cost, and population growth projections.
The regional fee program assures that new development contributes its proportionate share towards the costs of transportation infrastructure necessary to support growth in Monterey County. The Nexus Study is a component required by law that links the traffic impacts from new development to the needed transportation improvements (establishing the nexus), and defines how new development can mitigate its cumulative impacts to the regional transportation system by making a fair-share payment towards the costs of those improvements. Without this regional program, each development would be required to conduct its own cumulative traffic impact analysis, and negotiate payment to Caltrans and to regional roads accordingly. Instead, the Transportation Agency is conducting the cumulative impact analysis at the regional level for all new development in the County, which results in a streamlined environmental process and a standardized traffic mitigation methodology across the county.
Regional fees are assessed by zones as follows: North County, Greater Salinas, Peninsula/South Coast, and South County. Each zone has a different fee structure, based on its projected population, employment and housing growth, and the cost of the infrastructure projects in a given zone. The Fort Ord Reuse Authority area is essentially treated as a separate zone that is exempt from the regional fee, because development in that zone pays the FORA Community Facilities District fee. The Transportation Agency maintains a separate FORA zone in the event that FORA sunsets and a transition of the mitigation fee responsibilities needs to occur. As such, the regional development impact fee system would allow for a relatively smooth transition to the Transportation Agency by simply activating the FORA zone, and integrating the regional project lists. With FORA currently designated to sunset in 2020, Transportation Agency staff and FORA staff have been in discussions regarding the potential transfer of fee responsibilities.
Environmental review of the regional fee program occurs through the Environmental Impact Report for the Regional Transportation Plan. The most recent review was conducted in 2014, and the Agency is in the process of working with the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments to update the plan and conduct a new environmental assessment for 2018.
Staff plans to bring back a contract for TAMC approval at the June 28 Board meeting.