SR 06:032 - Laserfiche WebLink

BACKGROUND The stated purpose of the Vineyard Avenue Corridor Agricultural Mitigation Fee is to ensure that development in the Vineyard A venue Corridor compensates for the loss of cultivable or potentially cultivable soils through a payment to fund the Conservancy's conservation efforts. The Specific Plan states that the amount of the agricultural mitigation fee is based on a "one-to- one ratio between the cost per acre for agricultural easements to the Trust [Conservancy] and the net acreage of potentially cultivable soils less than 25 percent in slope lost to development." The fee has been collected on the HeinzIBordeaux I development, the Hahner/Bordeaux II development and the CentexlAvignon development as required by the conditions of approvals for those projects. Given a dispute with Greenbriar Homes regarding the amount of the fee on the HeinzIBordeaux I project, staff advises that the fee be formally adopted as part of the City's Master Fee Schedule and that the attached agreement with the Conservancy be executed to memorialize the responsibilities of both entities in establishing, collecting and using this fee. DISCUSSION The Conservancy has provided the City with its most recent appraisal (2003) for an agricultural conservation easement in the South Livermore Valley Plan Area. An excerpt of that appraisal is attached, which estimates the value of the agricultural conservation easement as $25,000 per acre. To this base figure, staff has added the flat amount of $645 to reflect City staff costs to review, collect and distribute the fee to the Conservancy. Similar to other development impact fees, this administrative component of the fee shall be adjusted in accordance with the annual percentage change in the Consumer Price Index ("CPI") (San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, all urban consumers). When the Conservancy provides the City with more recent appraisal information, the main component of the fee may also be adjusted at that time, pursuant to a resolution to amend the Master Fee Schedule. FISCAL IMPACT The resolution and Agreement with the Conservancy memorialize the current practice, so it is not anticipated that these actions will increase City revenues, except to the extent that the Fee now includes a component for City staff costs to review, collect and distribute the fee to the Conservancy. SR: 06: 032 Page 2 of3