In order to implement the goals and objectives of the San Juan Bautista General Plan, and to mitigate the impacts caused by future development in the City, certain public facilities and improvements must be constructed. The City Council has determined that a water capacity fee is needed in order to finance these public facilities and improvements, and to pay for each development’s fair share of the construction and acquisition costs of these facilities and improvements. In establishing the water capacity fee described in the following sections, the City Council has found the fee to be consistent with its General Plan, and pursuant to Government Code Section 65913.2, has considered the effects of the fee with respect to the City’s housing needs as established in the housing element of the General Plan.
(A)
A water capacity fee (“water capacity fee”) is established pursuant to Government Code Section 66013 to pay for publicly owned water facilities and improvements. Pursuant to Government Code Section 66013, the water capacity fee is not a development impact fee subject to the Mitigation Fee Act (Government Code Section 66000 et seq.), except that the water capacity fee shall be subject to Government Code Sections 66016, 66022 and 66023.
(B)
The City Council shall, in a Council resolution adopted after a duly noticed public hearing, set forth the amount of the water capacity fee, describe the benefit and impact area on which the water capacity fee is imposed, list the City-owned public facilities and improvements to be financed, describe the estimated cost of these facilities and improvements, describe the reasonable relationship between the use of the water capacity fee and the need for the public facilities and improvements, and the types of future development projects on which the water capacity fee is imposed, and set forth time for payment.
The revenues raised by payment of the water capacity fee shall be accounted for in the City’s Capital Project Fund. Separate and special accounts within the fund shall be used to account for revenues, along with any interest earnings on such account. These monies shall be used for the following purposes:
(A)
To pay for design, engineering, acquisition, property acquisition, including right-of-way acquisition and construction of the public facilities and improvements designated in the City Council resolution and reasonable costs of outside consultant studies related thereto;
(B)
To reimburse the City for designated public facilities and improvements constructed by the City with funds (other than gifts or grants) from other sources together with accrued interest;
(C)
To reimburse developers who have designed and constructed such designated public facilities and improvements; and/or
(D)
To pay for and/or reimburse costs of program development and ongoing administration of the water capacity fee program.
If a developer is required, as a condition of approval of a permit, to construct a public facility or improvement that has been designated to be financed with water capacity fees, a credit against the fee otherwise levied by this Article on the development project in an amount not to exceed the cost of such public facility or improvement as estimated by the City in adopting the fee shall be offered by the City and, if the fee is less than such amount, the developer shall be entitled to reimbursement. The reimbursement amount shall be from fee revenues only.
The City Council may, by resolution, adopt administrative guidelines to provide procedures for calculation, credit, reimbursement, or deferred payment and other administrative aspects of the water capacity fee.