The Mitigation Fee Act, among other things, imposes various requirements with respect to the establishment, increase, or imposition of a fee by a local agency as a condition of approval of a development project, including requiring the local agency to identify the use to which the fee is to be put, as specified. The act requires a local agency, upon receipt of a fee subject to these provisions, to deposit, invest, account for, and expend the fees as specified. For the 5th fiscal year following the first deposit into the account of fund, and every 5 years thereafter, the act requires the local agency to make prescribed findings with respect to that portion of the account or fund remaining unexpended, whether committed or uncommitted, including demonstrating a reasonable relationship between the fee and the purpose for which it is charged.
The
Planning and Zoning Law, among other things, authorizes the legislative body of a county or city to adopt ordinances to require, as a condition of development of residential rental units, that the development include a certain percentage of residential rental units affordable to, and occupied by, moderate-income, lower income, very low income, or extremely low income households or by persons and families of low or moderate income, as specified. Existing law establishes a process for the Department of Housing and Community Development to review certain types of these ordinances, subject to specified standards and procedures.
This bill, commencing on January 1, 2026, would require a local agency that collects inclusionary housing in-lieu fees and has an internet website
to annually post on its internet website the amount of those fees collected in the previous year and whether those fees are intended to be used for a project, if any. The bill would define “inclusionary housing in-lieu fees” to mean fees imposed as an alternative means of compliance with an inclusionary housing requirement. The bill, commencing on January 1, 2026, and every 5 years thereafter, would require a local agency that collects inclusionary housing in-lieu fees to post on its internet website the amount of those fees collected in the past 5 years and the project those fees were spent on.
The bill would include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities.