A committee was established by the Board of Supervisors to develop this fee. I am the Board representative on this committee. The make-up of the committee consisted of developers, real estate interests, engineers, and several public members along with several staff members and a consultant. The meetings were all public and open to any persons willing to attend, and indeed a few people outside of the committee attended meetings.

First, the committee developed a list of road projects that were projected to be impacted by future residential growth. This list included roads throughout the county, and the total cost was estimated at $168,000,000. This list was not pulled out of thin air; the roads were selected from the Regional Transportation Plan and from other planning documents and growth trends.

The Committee, with the help of the consultant, then estimated the cost of the projects that maintain the current level of service. This means that the projects were not intended to address the current road deficiencies but rather only issues of congestion and possible future gridlock based upon projected growth.

Next the committee allocated a percentage of the cost of each project that would be attributed to new growth. For example if a particular project cost a million dollars and 45% of the "need" for that project was attributed to the impacts of future growth, we would need to raise $450,000 from the proposed fee and the remaining $550,000 would have to come from other sources.

We then extrapolated the dwelling unit fee by dividing the cost into the number of projected future homes. Once this was accomplished for each project we developed a preliminary projected fee, which was $5,600 per new house.

This fee has yet to be adopted by the Board of Supervisors. Indeed the committee is currently revisiting the fee. We have removed a portion of the cost of projects on the state highways because the state will expend the majority of funds for those projects. It is estimated that the fee when adopted will be between $3,200 and $4,500 per new house.

Calaveras County is one of only a handful of cities and counties that do not have this type of fee.

The City of Angels has developed a Road Impact Fee. In some counties the citizens have felt the need to take issues into their own hands and have passed initiatives, which require that development pay it’s own way and not become a burden on those of us who already live here.

As you might guess builders do not like this type of fee. This fee will increase the cost of new as well as existing homes. Some, but not all, builders feel that they cannot charge any more for their houses. However, I believe they are failing to anticipate problems currently being created and are ignoring the negative impacts that increased traffic will have on our roads. Our quality of life is dependent on many things, including levels of automobile traffic, and a degradation of our quality of life caused by inadequate roads will necessarily affect property values.

One of the questions usually asked is what happens if the growth projections are not achieved. Since the need for this fee is based upon growth, if the growth doesn’t occur then the need doesn’t exist and the project isn’t necessary.

Some local builders also like to joke about the current resident not being allowed to use the new road. After all, "they" (meaning us) aren’t the ones who paid for the improvements. In reality this isn’t true. The portion of each project that is not allocated to new development (the 55% in the above example) would have to be paid for either through the county general fund, a sales tax increase, a parcel tax or a combination of all the above.

I believe that certain builders are also not giving enough thought to the possibility of pending litigation and challenges to the County General Plan which could, if successful, cause a building moratorium. In 1983 the County was sued because elements within the General Plan were inconsistent. The County lost the lawsuit and a building moratorium was called by a judge and stayed in effect until the County updated the General Plan. We could easily be facing the same situation.

Please keep in mind that any increase in taxes will require voter approval. The important thing to remember is that the intent of the committee, the Board, and myself is to impart a fair and equitable method of addressing issues related to growth and the impacts of growth upon our community.

People live in Calaveras County because we appreciate our rural quality of life, and the relative lack of the stress associated with urban areas. Calaveras County will, in all likelihood, continue to grow. It is important that we look ahead and anticipate the challenges that growth will present.

I hope this has helped clarify issues relating to the Road Impact Mitigation fee.

More info from Terri at: terribailey.com