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<br /> <br />City of San Leandro Page 1-2 <br />Parks Development Impact Fee Study <br />May 14, 2025 <br />Dolan). That was left for state courts to decide, and the case was remanded to the California Court <br />of Appeal for further consideration. <br />We expect that the methods used to calculate impact fees in this study will satisfy any standards the <br />California courts ultimately apply to legislatively adopted impact fees. <br />Defining “Nexus.” The nexus required to justify exactions and impact fees can be thought of as <br />having the three elements discussed below. We think proportionality is logically included as one <br />element of that nexus, even though it was discussed separately in Dolan v. Tigard. The elements of <br />the nexus discussed below mirror the three “reasonable relationship” findings required by the <br />Mitigation Fee Act for establishment and imposition of impact fees. <br />Need or Impact. Development must create a need for the facilities to be funded by impact fees. All <br />new development in a community creates additional demands on some or all public facilities <br />provided by local government. If the capacity of facilities is not increased to satisfy the additional <br />demand, the quality or availability of public services for the entire community will deteriorate. <br />Impact fees may be used to recover the cost of development-related facilities, but only to the extent <br />that the need for facilities is related to the development project subject to the fees. <br />The Nollan decision reinforced the principle that development exactions may be used only to <br />mitigate impacts created by the development projects upon which they are imposed. In this study, <br />the impact of development on facility needs is analyzed in terms of quantifiable relationships <br />between various types of development and the demand for public facilities based on applicable <br />level-of-service standards. This report contains all of the information needed to demonstrate <br />compliance with this element of the nexus. <br />Benefit. Development must benefit from facilities funded by impact fees. With respect to the benefit <br />relationship, the most basic requirement is that facilities funded by impact fees be available to serve <br />the development paying the fees. A sufficient benefit relationship also requires that impact fee <br />revenues be segregated from other funds and expended in a timely manner on the facilities for which <br />the fees were charged. Nothing in the U.S. Constitution or California law requires that facilities paid <br />for with impact fee revenues be available exclusively to development projects paying the fees. <br />Procedures for earmarking and expenditure of fee revenues are mandated by the Mitigation Fee <br />Act, as are procedures to ensure that the fees are either expended in a timely manner or refunded. <br />Those requirements are intended to ensure that developments benefit from the impact fees they <br />are required to pay. Thus, over time, procedural issues as well as substantive issues can come into <br />play with respect to the benefit element of the nexus. <br />Proportionality. Impact fees must be proportional to the impact created by a particular <br />development project. Proportionality in impact fees depends on properly identifying development- <br />related facility costs and calculating the fees in such a way that those costs are allocated in <br />proportion to the facility needs created by different types and amounts of development. The section <br />on impact fee methodology, below, describes methods used to allocate facility costs and calculate <br />impact fees that meet the proportionality standard. <br />California Constitution. The California Constitution grants broad police power to local governments, <br />including the authority to regulate land use and development. That police power is the source of <br />authority for local governments in California to impose impact fees on development. Some impact