23.14.090 Drainage fees – Cost of drainage and sewer facilities – Conditions.
The purpose of this section is to make provisions for accessing and collecting fees as a condition of approval of a final map or as a condition of issuing a building permit for the purpose of defraying the actual or estimated cost of constructing drainage and sewer facilities as authorized by Cal. Gov’t. Code § 66483 of the Subdivision Map Act.
A. The Board may adopt a drainage or sewer plan for any area within the county. The Plan shall contain an estimate of the total costs of constructing the local drainage or sanitary sewer facilities required by the plan, and a map of such area showing its boundaries and the location of such facilities.
B. The costs, whether actual or estimated, are based upon findings by the Board, that subdivision and development of property within the planned local drainage area or local sanitary sewer area will require construction of the facilities described in the drainage or sewer plan, and that the fees are fairly apportioned within such areas either on the basis of benefits conferred on property proposed for subdivision or on the need for such facilities created by the proposed subdivision and development of other property within such areas.
C. The fee as to any property proposed for subdivision within such a local area does not exceed the pro rata share of the amount of the total actual or estimated costs of all facilities within such area which would be assessable on such property if such costs were apportioned uniformly on a per-acre basis.
D. The drainage or sanitary sewer facilities planned are in addition to existing facilities serving the area at the time of the adoption of such a plan for the area.
Such fees shall be paid to the local public agencies which provide drainage or sanitary sewer facilities, and shall be deposited by such agencies into a “planned local drainage facilities fund” and a “planned local sanitary sewer fund,” respectively. Separate funds shall be established for each local drainage and sanitary sewer area. Moneys in such funds shall be expended solely for the construction or reimbursement for construction of local drainage or sanitary sewer facilities within the area from which the fees comprising the fund were collected, or to reimburse the local agency for the cost of engineering and administrative services to form the district and design and construct the facilities.
E. Determination of Amount of Surplus, Disposition. After completion of the facilities and the payment of all claims from any “planned local drainage facilities fund” or any “planned local sanitary sewer fund,” the Board shall determine by resolution the amount of the surplus, if any, remaining in any of those funds. Any surplus shall be used, in those amounts as the legislative body may determine, for one or more of the following purposes.
1. For transfer to the general fund of the county or city; provided, that the amount of the transfer shall not exceed five percent of the total amount expended from the particular fund; and provided, that the funds transferred are used to support the operation and maintenance of those facilities for which the fees were collected;
2. For the construction of additional or modified facilities within the particular drainage or sanitary sewer area; or
3. As a refund in the manner provided in Cal. Gov’t. Code § 66483.2.
F. Refund of Surplus. Any surplus remaining shall be refunded as follows:
1. There shall be refunded to the current owners of property for which a fee was previously collected the balance of such monies in the same proportion which each individual fee collected bears to the total of all individual fees collected from the particular drainage or sewer area;
2. Where property for which a fee was previously collected has subsequently been subdivided into more than one lot, each current owner of a lot shall share in the refund payable to the owners of the property for which a fee was previously collected in the same proportion which the area of each individual lot bears to the total area of the property for which a fee was previously collected; and
3. There shall be transferred to the general fund of the county or city any remaining portion of the surplus which has not been paid to or claimed by the persons entitled thereto within two years from the date either of the completion of the improvements, or the adoption by the legislative body of a resolution declaring a surplus, whichever is later to occur. (Formerly 23.14.009)