(a)
Certain types of new development projects and subdivisions within the county can have
impacts on public transportation and transit facilities.
(b)
The State of California, through the enactment of Government Code sections 66484 and
66001 through 66025 has decreed that local agencies may collect fees from new development
projects and subdivisions within the county for the impacts they have on certain capital
improvements, including transportation and transit facilities.
(c)
New development and subdivisions within Santa Barbara County should be required to
mitigate their transportation and transit facility impacts by constructing, or financing
the construction of, the transportation and transit facilities needed to serve the
new development and subdivisions.
(d)
The County of Santa Barbara is comprised of different regions, and each of these regions
has different transportation and transit facility needs that are impacted differently
by new development and subdivisions.
(e)
The county board of supervisors has (1) adopted, and regularly updates, a Santa Barbara
County comprehensive plan circulation element that generally identifies future elements
of the county transportation system that may be impacted by new development projects
and subdivisions, and (2) has also initiated a program of developing transportation
improvement plans which identify the specific transportation and transit facility
improvements needed in the various regions of the county that are impacted by new
development projects and subdivisions.
(f)
County staff periodically prepare reports that address the existing modes of transportation
within the county and the demands created by new development projects and subdivisions
for new or improved public facilities to accommodate motor vehicles and other modes
of transportation.
(g)
Documentation gathered by county staff has identified percentages of travelers using
different modes of motorized and nonmotorized transportation in the various planning
areas of the county.
(h)
The board of supervisors has determined that imposition of transportation impact mitigation
fees to finance transportation for the county is necessary in order to (1) protect
the public health, safety and welfare by the provision of adequate transportation
and transit facilities, (2) provide developers or subdividers certainty with regard
to their financial obligations, and (3) ensure that new development or subdivisions
will not create an undue burden on the interrelated transportation and transit facilities
throughout the county.
(i)
The transportation impact mitigation fees expected to be generated by new development
projects and subdivisions will not exceed the estimated total cost of constructing
or providing the transportation and transit facilities necessitated by these new development
projects and subdivisions.
(j)
There is a reasonable relationship between the need for transportation and transit
facilities and the development projects and subdivisions for which the transportation
impact mitigation fees authorized by this Ordinance are to be charged, and that there
also exists a reasonable relationship between the proposed use of these fees and the
type of land use for which the fees are to be charged.
(k)
Therefore it is ordered that there is added to the Santa Barbara County Code a new
chapter entitled "Transportation Impact Mitigation Fees."
