66004.1.
(a) The Legislature finds and declares as follows:(1) Providing certainty in the housing approval and development process is essential for achieving the state’s housing policies.
(2) Although the Legislature has attempted to provide certainty through the enactment of Sections 65589.5, 65866, 65961, 66474.2, and 66498.1, among other statutes, these efforts have not been adequate. Applicants for housing projects continue to be unaware of the specific fees that are applicable to their project and are not provided certainty that those fees will remain in effect for any specific period of time.
(3) It is the intent of the Legislature in enacting this section to provide effective and meaningful transparency and certainty for applicants for housing projects by requiring cities and counties to provide a statement of fees applicable to the project at the time that the application is deemed complete and provide a reasonable time for fees to be locked from that time.
(b) At the time that an application for approval of a housing development project is deemed complete, the city, county, or city and county shall provide the applicant a good faith statement disclosing the amount of impact and development fees applicable to the housing development. The impact and development fees applicable to the housing development disclosed pursuant to this subdivision shall not be increased for two years following issuance of the good faith statement.
(c) The prohibition against fee increases provided in subdivision (b) shall not apply to a fee or charge imposed pursuant to Section 66013, fees within a community benefit agreement, fees charged by both water and utility entities, both public and private, or to any fee increase resulting from an automatic annual adjustment based on an independently published cost index that is referenced in the ordinance or resolution establishing the fee in effect at the time the housing development application is deemed complete.
(d) The fact that a housing development project may require a land use approval that is considered legislative in nature shall not be construed to limit or narrow the applicability or scope of the prohibition against fee increases provided in subdivision (b).
(e) Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent additional units or square footage that result from project revisions occurring after the application is determined by the local agency to be complete from being subject to a fee, charge, or other exaction that was in effect at the time that the housing development application is deemed complete.
(f) Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit the authority of a city, county, or city and county to impose a fee or other exaction necessary to mitigate a housing development project’s impact to a less than significant level pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (Division 13 (commencing with Section 21000) of the Public Resources Code).
(g) For purposes of this section, “impact and development fees that are applicable to housing developments” means fees imposed under the Mitigation Fee Act, other fees based on the impact of a project, parkland dedication fees imposed under the Quimby Act, affordable housing fees, and utility connection fees and capacity charges that are established by the city, county, or city and county.