HomeMy WebLinkAbout1/17/2023 Item 6e, SLO County YIMBY
To:Codron, Michael
Subject:SLO City's unfair impact fees on future development
Begin forwarded message:
From: "SLO County YIMBY via ActionNetwork.org" <sloco@yimbyaction.org>
Subject: SLO City's unfair impact fees on future development
Date: January 16, 2023 at 4:00:37 PM PST
To: francisforslo@gmail.com
Reply-To: sloco@yimbyaction.org
The City of SLO is undermining its own ability to provide cheaper, faster housing construction
for our community. This Tuesday, January 17th, City Council will consider updates to impact
fees, which can affect affordability in indirect and sneaky ways.
What are impact fees?
Think of "impact fees" as a kind of tax on new development - just one tangible cost of doing
business in a community. New development and land uses have a measurable impact on
public goods and services. With new development comes new residents, workers, and
customers who all need parks, clean water, libraries, and emergency services. Collecting
impact fees is super important for a city to have nice things.
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Why should I care?
This Tuesday, the City of SLO will consider updates to its impact fees that would be applicable
to all future development. The problem is the new fees would continue to place greater burden
on certain types of development than others.
What type of development? Just take a wild guess.
(Yep - it's multifamily housing. )
Okay, what exactly are we dealing with here?
When it comes to measurable impacts on the community, single family and multifamily
development are NOT the same. We know that:
Multifamily development places less stress on transportation systems, because
residents tend to make fewer car trips
Multifamily development uses water more efficiently
Multifamily development uses less land while housing more individuals and
families!
It's not even close, but SLO still treats single family and multifamily fees similarly. This just
shows that decision-makers have not re-examined fundamental assumptions about
development in years. Check out the table below: a 3,000-square-foot McMansion only has to
pay 10 cents more per square foot in transportation impact fees than a 300-square-foot granny
unit. Make it make sense!
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Of course, impact fees alone aren't the reason that housing is so expensive in the Central
Coast. But they're one way the City of SLO sabotages the construction of cheaper homes for
everyone.
You got me mad about fees! How can I help?
You can tell the City Council to consider drastically reducing impact fees for multifamily
housing in order to facilitate housing production for all. You can mention:
Every day, the City adds tens of thousands in fees onto homes that already cost
hundreds of thousands of $$$ to build. These fees ultimately drive up final rental or
sale price.
Continuing to levy disproportionately high impact fees on multifamily homes only
discourages developers from building them.
It is unfair and unjust to treat single family and multifamily development as if they have
the same impacts on our public goods and infrastructure.
Write an email to emailcouncil@slocity.org or leave a voicemail at (805) 781-7164 before the
City Council meeting tomorrow at 5pm! Check out agenda item 6.e for more information.
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