Agenda - 10-18-2016 - 7-a - School Impact Fee Updates

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3 The proposed Ordinances (Attachments 2 and 3) include the section of the County's General Code of Ordinances that pertains to the Educational Facilities Impact Fee with proposed amendments shown in "track changes" format. Proposed amendments to this section of the Code of Ordinances include: • Adding definitions for the various housing types. • Updating the schedule of public school impact fees in Section 30-33. • Adding language in Section 30-33 that would require age restricted units that do not remain age restricted for at least 20 years to pay the difference between the age restricted fee paid and the non-age-restricted fee in effect at the time a unit is no longer age restricted. • Adding language in Section 30-35(e) clarifying under what conditions a refund would be issued if impact fees were reduced for a particular housing unit type. • Adding language in Section 30-38 to recognize conditional zoning, which was adopted in 2011 when the UDO was adopted. The proposed Ordinances differ as follows: • Attachment 2 is the Ordinance that would charge fees by bedroom counts for the types of units for which bedroom counts apply (namely, single-family detached, single-family attached, and multi-family). o Attachment 2 would adopt the impact fee levels at 37% of the MSIF, effective January 1, 2017 with an increase to 47% of the MSIF on January 1, 2018 and a final increase to 57% of the MSIF on January 1, 2019. • Attachment 3 is the Ordinance that would charge fees at the "average" calculated MSIF (i.e., all bedroom categories would be "collapsed" into one fee [the average] per housing type). o Attachment 3 would adopt the impact fee levels at 43.5% of the MSIF, effective January 1, 2017 with an increase to 53.5%% of the MSIF on January 1, 2018 and a final increase to 63.5% of the MSIF on January 1, 2019. • The sole difference between the two Ordinances is the Schedule of Public School Impact Fees in Section 30-33, reflecting the information in the above bullets. The adopting Ordinance for both options contains language clarifying building permit application deadlines and by when a building permit would have to be issued in order to pay the prior fee (for housing unit types that had a lower prior fee). This language is included to ensure that genuine projects are given ample time to go through the normal permitting process (which can include required revisions prior to permit issuance) while discouraging premature applications containing inadequate information but which are submitting for the purpose of beating fee increase deadlines. These inadequate permit applications can sometimes remain in the permitting system for more than a year before required materials are submitted and, in some cases, are never acted on (Orange County does not charge an application fee; permitting fees are paid at the time a permit is issued). Since 1995, Orange County has offered an impact fee reimbursement program for school impact fees paid on affordable housing units. From FY2009-10 through FY2015-16, $606,318 in collected impact fees was reimbursed for the 77 affordable single-family housing units and one apartment building containing 6 affordable multi-family units constructed in that time period.