The City of Santa Clara recently issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for consultants to study and propose new development impact fees. These new fees could include public art, public safety or other fees that the consultant may propose. BIA|Bay Area submitted objections to the instructions in the RFP, notably that in the face of the worst housing affordability crisis in Bay Area history, the city is proposing to pay people to think up new fees that would increase the cost of housing. BIA also criticized the city's lack of transparency, the impact to the housing element and effects on the total fee load. Click HERE to read the RFP.   Click HERE to read BIA's letter.

San Ramon is poised to formally add non-subdivision (rental) residential development to its parkland dedication and park development impact fee programs. The City Council is set to introduce two updating ordinances on Aug. 28, 2018. The city previously adopted the rate schedule as part of its 2018-19 municipal fee update. Park and recreation facility impact fees for non-subdivision projects are $18,112.50 per single-family unit and $10,867.50 per multi-family unit. The city's parkland dedication requirement is the appraised value of 687 sq. ft. of land multiplied by 1.02 for single-family projects and the appraised value of 451 sq. ft. of land multiplied by 1.02 for multi-family.  If adopted, the ordinances will go into effect in 30 days. Click HERE to view the agenda and staff report. For questions or comments, contact BIA's Lisa Vorderbrueggen at 925-348-1956 or lvorderbrueggen@biabayarea.org.

As reported last week, Santa Clara County cities are studying the proposed formation of a Santa Clara County Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) Subregion. Led by the Santa Clara County Cities Association, the RHNA Subregion would purportedly facilitate Santa Clara County and its cities to work collaboratively to produce more housing and have a unified voice. The Cities Association RHNA Subregion Task Force studied the formation of a subregion for Santa Clara County and has developed draft bylaws, a draft resolution, guiding principles, a vision statement and a pros and cons list. The Cities Association Board approved these items at its June 14, 2018, meeting and have released the documents to its member city councils for feedback. San Jose is scheduled to study it on Aug. 28, 2018.   Click HERE to download and view the staff report with attachments.  Click HERE to download and view BIA|Bay Area's comment letter.