Item 14 - Parks, Facilities, Trails and Open Space Master Plan

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Exhibit 1 RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT IMPACT FEE The City of Santa Ana's Residential Development Impact Fee is an important source of funding for parks and recreation facility improvements. The fee program, originally adopted in the 1980s, levies development impact fees on new residential development projects for the purpose of constructing parks and recreation facilities to serve the needs of new City residents associated with those projects. As part of the PIMP development, Economic & Planning Systems (EPS) evaluated Santa Ana's park impact fees to consider their current and future capacity to fund parks and recreational facilities. Preliminary findings are noted here. A full Nexus Study process as prescribed by the State's Mitigation Fee Act (AB 1600) should be undertaken to fully consider the ways in which impact fees may fund parks and facilities. CURRENT FEE PROGRAM Chapter 35, Article IV of the City's Municipal Code states: "Development of parks within the city will require the construction of park and recreation facilities sufficient to provide two (2) acres of such facilities per one thousand (1,000) population in the city... Any person adding net residential units or converting apartments to condominiums in the City of Santa Ana shall pay to the City fees ... for the purpose of preserving an appropriate balance between the demand by residents for use of park and recreational facilities and the availability of such park and recreational facilities and to preclude residential development which would create an excess demand on such facilities."i The Code further specifies that the fees paid under this article "shall be placed in a special fund to be known as the 'Park Acquisition and Development Fund.' Moneys in such fund shall be expended for the acquisition, construction and renovation of park and recreation facilities. In the event the City meets the standard of two (2) acres of such facilities per one thousand (1,000) population, and will meet such criterion following all developments for which fees have been collected, any moneys remaining in such fund may be used for renovation of the City's existing parks.112 Fee Structure and Level The Residential Development Impact Fee is levied specifically on new residential development in Santa Ana. The fee levels are calculated based on the number of bedrooms in the new residential units. Since program adoption, the fee levels have been regularly increased based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to keep pace with escalating costs over time. The City collects Residential Development Impact Fees in four districts (Figure 8-3). The fees collected from each district are deposited into a district -specific A&D Fund and can only be used to fund parks and recreation facilities within that specific district. The intention of the district structure is to target fee revenues towards the development of parks and facilities in close proximity to new residents. Recent Fee Collection Table 8-4 summarizes the City's Residential Development Impact fee collections from 2018 to 2021, broken out by district. As shown, the City collected approximately $11.7M over these three fiscal years, an average of $3.9 million annually. However, the fee collection was not evenly distributed across the four districts. Nearly three-quarters of the total fee collection took place in District 3, while fees collected in Districts 1 and 4 accounted for less than ten percent each of the total fee amount. TABLE 84: SANTA ANA PARKS ACQUISITION AND DEVELOPMENT FUND COLLECTIONS, 2018-2021 District 1 $433,682.66 $57,793.46 $451,702.00 District 2 $270,284.17 $876,298.48 $529,089.00 District 3 $4,796,801.94 $84,567.71 $3,557,383.00 District 4 $486,576.03 $131,245.58 $46,052.00 Source: City of Santa Ana; EPS ' Santa Ana, CA Municipal Code, Section 35-108 and 35-110. SANTA ANA PARKS MASTER PLAN 2Santa Ana, CA Municipal Code, Section 35-108. CHAPTER 8: ACTION PLAN