Contra Costa Board of Supervisors Approve 64% Increase in Fire District Facilities Fee

The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday 3-0 to approve a 64% increase in the county fire district fire facilities fee.

The fee is set to kick in on November 1 which the fund helps the district fund needed capital expenditures associated with development in the Fire District.

The 64% increase results in impact fees jumping to $970 per single family dwelling, $460 per multifamily dwelling unit and $662, $579 and $387 per 1000 square feet for commercial office and industrial development.

According to the District, in September 2016, the Fire District contracted with Willdan Financial Services (Willdan) to review the existing Fire District Facilities Fees, previously revised in 2006, and determine if an adjustment to the fees was warranted.

As of August 1, 2019, the Fire District will have 26 staffed stations to accommodate the existing service population of approximately 730,100

Both Supervisor Candace Andersen and Supervisor John Gioia were absent from the meeting.

Meeting Recap:

According to Contra Costa County Fire Protection District Fire Chief Lewis T. Broschard III, Chief, the impact fees program was adopted in the mid-1980’s by the Riverview Fire District which covered Antioch, Pittsburg and Bay Point which carried over to Contra Costa County Fire during consolidation.

Broschard stated that the program had only been updated once and that was in 2006—in 13-years.

“It is adopted currently within all the unincorporated areas of the fire district as well as the city of Pittsburg and Antioch,” said Broschard. “However, today we’re focused on the unincorporated area. If any city decides to adopt a fire facilities fee or ordinance they would do that on their own initiative.”

Broschard explained the fees may only be used to pay for facilities, apparatus and equipment, and may not be used for recurring operating costs. The fees are collected at the time of building permit application and paid only once per project.

The Fire District had looked at this in 2017 – research concluded a fee increase was needed to respond to the overextended condition of the district.

“The entire district is proposed as the overextended service area because all of the facilities and apparatus and equipment that the district has are available for major fires and other emergency incidents and our resources are dispatched regardless of city boundaries,” stated Broschard.

The district currently imposes an impact fee of $591 per single family dwelling, $285 per a multifamily dwelling unit and $376, $329 and $219 per 1000 square feet of commercial office and industrial development respectively

With board approval, the ordinance would increase the impact fee to $970 per single family dwelling, $460 per multifamily dwelling unit and $662, $579 and $387 per 1000 square feet for commercial office and industrial development.

“This represents an approximate increase of 64% or approximately 5% per year if you look back over the 12-to-13 year period,” said Broschard.

The Fire District also met with the Building Industry Association (BIA). The BIA requested two concepts be considered which was a phased implementation as well as an annual escalator, a an automatic annual escalator, uh, be considered for the fee program. Broschard also said both the City of Antioch and City of Pittsburg, which already have fee ordinances in place, were supportive with their efforts to revise their impact fees.

Supervisor Federal Glover stated he was in agreement with BIA and questioned if that was part of the proposed formula.

Broschard stated the phase in was not considered as part of the ordinance because they already have a discounted fee.

“The fee study that we undertook is two years old and we purposefully did not go back and revise that fee study, uh, this year,” said Broschard adding that if they went back and reran numbers, it would be well over a $1,000 per single family dwelling because of the increased cost of construction.

Broschard added that the downside with a phase in would be any project that pulls a building permit between now and whatever the implementation date the board chooses would be under the old fee.

He then explained they did not consider an escalator but they supported it, however, they would need additional analysis to justify the escalator—possibly the Construction Cost Index or construction industry inflation factor.

“The challenge for us is that our impact fee is not just based on construction. While that’s the lion share of the impact fee issues, we also have fire apparatus and equipment that are purchased with these fees. So we would have to come up with some sort of analysis and methodology to justify that escalator,” explained Broschard.

Glover said a 64% increase was quite a bit at one time and said they should be doing the increases over time, not suddenly hit with this type of impact fee increase.

Supervisor Diane Burgis stated she wanted to avoid these large increases in the future and look at the inflationary adjustments.

“64% sounds like a lot and it is a lot,” said Burgis. “I am in interested in phasing and the grandfathering because it is really expensive to build when you are budgeting and planning for all of this, if there’s a higher amount that you’re going to have to deal with, it can have impact and we do have a housing crisis right now, so we do need to make sure that these things are being built.”

Burgis asked how long it would take to make adjustments and phase in. Broschard explained the board could pick any date. The only change in math would come with an escalator which he did not have a timeline for.

Burgis suggested they move forward with the phasing and come back with the adjustment in the future.

Glover agreed.

Supervisor Karen Mitchoff was not in favor of the phasing in but wanted to make sure they moved forward today.

“My understanding is this has been in the work for over two years obviously. So I’m gonna make the advocacy to my colleagues as chief Burchard has said that, that there’s been a phase in already or a delay,” explained Mitchoff.  “I remember when former Chief Carmen called me and said, supervisor, we want to do this. And I said, fine, but you need to reach out to the BIA. And he did. And that was two years ago. So they’ve known this was coming and I know construction costs are expensive, but they’re only going to go up.”

Mitchoff said while there is a housing crunch, they also needed to provide fire services. She encouraged them to move forward sooner rather than later as this has been 2-years in the making.

Burgis suggested while there is not much development anticipated in the unincorporated areas, it could be a trigger for other cities. Mitchoff added it could help them take up the issue sooner.

After a short discussion, the Board of Supervisors opted for a 90-day delay before the new facilities fees go into place which would be November 1, 2019. The motion was passed in a 3-0 vote.