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County developer fee could aid transportation
Construction crews work on new homes on Clay Bank Road in Fairfield, Friday morning. (Brad Zweerink/Daily Republic)
FAIRFIELD — Transportation advocates are asking the county for a slice of its developer fee pie to go toward transportation projects.
Solano County has long had a public facilities fee program that collects a fee on all development in the county, both rural and urban. For example, a new home in Fairfield would have a $9,150 fee, with money going toward county facilities for public protection, health and social services, libraries, general government, courts and administration.
The Solano Transportation Authority Board of Directors on Wednesday voted to ask the county to include transportation within the fee, though without raising the total fee amount.
“We just carve out a piece that goes to transportation,” said Jim Spering, a county supervisor and Solano Transportation Authority board member.
Another option was to ask the county to raise its developer fee so money could go to transportation, which in turn could raise the price of a new home. But the Solano Transportation Authority board rejected that route.
“One of the concerns we’re hearing from the developers is you can’t keep adding to the fee,” Spering said.
The idea behind the county’s public facility fee is that growth causes more use of county services. In the case of transportation, the idea would be that a growing population is using rural roads as people drive between cities and that these roads must be improved to meet the added demand.
Whether the county’s public facility fee gets a transportation component is up to the Solano County Board of Supervisors. The public facility fee in 2011-12 brought in $3.9 million, down $24,419 from the previous year.
Do you have a Biz Buzz item? Reach Barry Eberling at 427-6929 or beberling@dailyrepublic.net. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/beberlingdr.
Barry Eberling
Discussion | 1 comment
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Steven KaysDecember 17, 2012 - 4:54 pm
One of the biggest reasons contractors can't get work comes down to construction permit fees. People are not building when new construction costs much more than old construction (existing homes).
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