At its January 16, 2016 meeting, the State Allocation Board (SAB) increased its Level 1 developer fees. The maximum fees on residential construction are now set at $3.39 and on commercial and industrial construction at $0.55.

LEGAL UPDATE

February 10, 2016

To: Superintendents, Member School Districts (K-12)

From: Loren W. Soukup, Associate General Counsel

Subject: Procedure for Increasing School Facilities Fees

Memo No. 06-2016

Attachment 1 to this memorandum discusses, in detail, the steps that must be followed before levying Level 1 fees at these higher rates. Neither this attachment nor this memorandum will address the alternative fees permitted by SB 50–frequently referred to as Level 2 and Level 3 fees, which are governed by different procedures and requirements.

Attachment 2 to this memorandum is a resolution to increase statutory school facilities fees to the amounts now permitted by the SAB’s action. This resolution does the following:

1. Provides for increasing fees as authorized by Government Code Section 65995 by the increase of the State Allocation Board’s statewide cost index adopted in January on a non-urgency basis. (If your district wishes to adopt the increase on an urgency basis, please contact our office.)

2. Provides for review of the district’s continuing need to levy fees and to increase those fees as authorized and described in item 1 above.

3. Provides for inclusion of the School Facility Plan/Developer Fee Study (sometimes called a “Superintendent’s Report”) or other justification document(s) (see Attachment 1) as Exhibit “A” to the resolution your board adopts, and includes a page marked as Exhibit “A.” Given that a number of recent court decisions have invalidated School Facility Plan/Developer Fee Studies, we recommend that you contact our office to review the justification document(s) that the district obtains before they are adopted by the governing board.

Attachment 3 is a notice which can be used to give the notice required by Government Code Section 6062a. This section requires notice to be published twice in a newspaper published weekly or more often, with at least five days between the two publications and the first publication at least ten days prior to the board meeting.

If you have any questions or if your individual situation requires tailoring of a specific resolution or other documents, please feel free to contact this office for assistance.

Please contact our office with questions regarding this Legal Update or any other legal matter.

The information in this Legal Update is provided as a summary of law and is not intended as legal advice. Application of the law may vary depending on the particular facts and circumstances at issue. We, therefore, recommend that you consult legal counsel to advise you on how the law applies to your specific situation.

Procedure for Increasing School Facilities Fees (K-12)

Contact SCLS