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By: @Anthony Tannehill 

Development related fees are crucial to funding essential infrastructure to serve new homes and businesses. Senate Bill 937 (Wiener) risks costly delays for the water, sewer, parks, libraries, flood protection and other facilities necessary to meet the needs of our growing communities.

Among other things, for certain residential developments, SB 937 will generally prohibit the collection of development related impact fees until the completion of the development at final inspection or certificate of occupancy.

Additionally, it locks those fees in at the point where the development has been approved and is eligible to pull a building permit. It furthermore prohibits the collection of interest on deferred fees, creating challenges for local agencies to keep up with inflation.

Amendments that included a five-year cap on the deferral of fees if a permitted project has not broken ground were recently added.

Later amendments created an exclusive list of the service types that are allowed to be an exception to the collection of fees at certificate of occupancy in order to collect at the beginning of a project. Leaving some services at a disadvantage to keep up with inflation or build facilities and infrastructure in tandem with a new development.

Additionally, very late amendments created a new and conflicting legal standard for the collection of water and sewer connection and capacity charges and place this new standard in a different, inappropriate section of the Government Code.

SB 937 passed the State Legislature and now awaits Governor Gavin Newsom’s consideration for signature of veto by September 30. CSDA has asked the Governor for a veto and encourages its members to consider doing the same.

You can read CSDA’s letter requesting a veto HERE .

Special districts wishing to request Governor Newsom veto SB 937 should send a letter with the subject line “Request for Veto: SB 937 (Wiener)” to:

The Honorable Gavin Newsom

Governor, State of California

1021 O St., Ste. 9000

Sacramento, CA 95814

Effective veto request letters are respectful and concise and may utilize the talking points from this article.

Please email the Governor’s Legislative Unit with a copy of your letter to Leg.Unit@gov.ca.gov, and copy CSDA at advocacy@csda.net.