Mitigation Fee Act: fees: notice and timelines.

The Mitigation Fee Act authorizes a local agency to establish, increase, or impose a variety of fees, dedications, reservations, or other exactions for services, and in connection with the approval of a development project, as defined. Existing law prohibits a local agency from imposing fees for specified purposes, including fees for water or sewer connections, capacity charges, zoning variances or changes, use permits, and building inspections or permits, among others, that exceed the estimated reasonable cost of providing the service for which the fee is charged, unless voter approval is obtained. Existing law requires fees or service charges that create revenues in excess of actual cost to be used to reduce the fee or service charge. Existing law requires a local agency, before levying or increasing a fee or service charge, to hold at least one open and public meeting and requires that notice of the time and place of the meeting be mailed at least 14 days prior to the meeting to any interested party who files a written request with the local agency for mailed notice of the meeting on new or increased fees or service charges. Existing law additionally requires the local agency to make available to the public, at least 10 days prior to the meeting, the data indicating the amount of cost, or estimated cost, required to provide the service for which the fee or service charge is levied and the revenue sources anticipated to provide the service, as specified. Existing law also authorizes the local agency to provide notice via electronic notification to those who specifically request it, and authorizes the legislative body of a local agency to establish a reasonable annual charge for sending notices based on the estimated cost of providing the service. Existing law authorizes any party to protest the imposition of a fee, dedication, reservation, or other exactions imposed on a development project within 90 or 120 days of the imposition of the fee, as applicable, and specifies procedures for those protests and actions. The act imposes the same requirements on a local agency for a new or increased fee for public facilities. Existing law, for specified fees, requires any judicial action or proceeding to attack, review, set aside, void, or annul an ordinance, resolution, or motion adopting a new fee or service charge or modifying an existing fee or service charge to be commenced within 120 days of the effective date of the ordinance, resolution, or motion. Existing law also provides that, if an ordinance, resolution, or motion provides for an automatic adjustment in a fee or service charge and the adjustment results in an increase in the fee or service charge, that any action to attack, review, set aside, void, or annul the increase to be commenced within 120 days of the increase. This bill would increase, for fees and service charges and for fees for specified public facilities, the time for mailing the notice of the time and place of the meeting to at least 45 days before the meeting. The bill would require the local agency to make that information available to the public at least 30 days before the meeting. The bill would require a local agency to additionally make available to the public all of the data demonstrating the requisite relationship between the amount of a fee for public facilities and the need for the public facilities. The bill would require the data to also be made available to the public on the local agency's internet website. The bill would authorize interested parties to file an electronic request to receive the notice of the meeting time and place, and would require the local agency to mail or electronically send the notice as requested by the party. The bill would prohibit the legislative body of a local agency from establishing a reasonable annual charge for sending electronic notices. The bill would prohibit a local agency, when defending a protest or action filed for a fee or service charge, or for fees for specified public facilities, from using as evidence, or relying on in any way, data not made available to the public pursuant to these provisions. The bill would require revenues in excess of actual cost to be used to reimburse the payor of the fee or service charge. This bill would also delete the provisions requiring a judicial action or proceeding to attack, review, set aside, void, or annul an ordinance within 120 days of the effective date of the ordinance or increase, as applicable. The bill would instead require a judicial action or proceeding to be conducted in accordance with other procedures that, among other things, require a protest to be filed within 90 days after the imposition of the fees and an action to attack, review, set aside, void, or annul the imposition of the fees to be filed within 180 days after delivery of a specified notice by the local agency. By imposing new duties on local agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.