Real Estate & Property Law

Updated Opinion: Impact Fee Not Reasonably Related To Burden Created By Development

By Robert Thomas (inversecondemnation.com)

Last month, we summarized Homebuilders Ass'n Tulare/Kings Counties, Inc. v. City of Lemoore, No. F057671 (Cal. Ct. App. June 9, 2010), a case about the propriety of impact fees under California's Mitigation Fee Act (Cal. Gov't Code § 66000, et seq.). The court upheld most of the impact fees as reasonably related, but invalidated fire mitigation fees imposed on development in one part of town where fire facilities were adequate would be used to offset the cost of already-built fire facilities in another part of town. The standards for impact fees under the Act are similar to the constitutional Nollan/Dolan standards, and the court concluded the impact fee violated the statute because it was not reasonably related to the burden created by a development. Read our complete summary here.

Today, the court revised the opinion (but did not change the judgment). In this order, the court deleted "the entire discussion under part 2, 'The standard of review and burden of proof'" (page 4), and replaced it with a new section. It looks like some technical tweaks to the court's recitation of the burden of proof.

Full post as published by inversecondemnation on July 08, 2010 (boomark / email).