The fire facilities fee provides a mechanism to collect funds for needed capital expenditures associated with development in the Fire District. The fee, paid by developers, provides funding to help address growth. The current fee does not come close to addressing the needs of development. The new proposed fee is approximately 64% higher than the existing fee. Revenue will be based on actual development.
In September 2016, the Fire District contracted with Willdan Financial Services (Willdan) to review the existing Fire District Facilities Fees, previously revised in 2006, and determine if an adjustment to the fees was warranted. Willdan researched and produced a report, dated July 25, 2017, that has assessed the projected population and development growth within the Fire District service area. This research and the resulting report show that an increase in the fee is necessary to respond to the overextended condition of the Fire District.
The Contra Costa County Fire Protection District provides fire protection services to the cities of Antioch, Clayton, Concord, Lafayette, Martinez, Pittsburg, Pleasant Hill, San Pablo, Walnut Creek, and the unincorporated areas of Contra Costa County. The Fire District service area is over 310 square miles with an estimated service population of 730,100 (the number of residents and employees within the service area).
The entire Fire District is proposed as the overextended service area because all of the facilities of the Fire District are available for major structural fires and other emergency incidents. Apparatus are dispatched based on the requirements of the incident and not necessarily on a geographical basis. The Fire District responds to incidents with the best resources regardless of city boundaries.
The Fire District service population is projected to increase by 162,100 to a projected service population of 892,200 by the year 2040. This will result in a substantial impact on the fire protection facilities. The Fire District had a 44% increase in service calls for the 10-year period from 2009 through 2018. This is an indicator that the increase in population of the county has increased the volume of calls to the Fire District. As population increases, the number of people who will request emergency services will increase.
The Fire District’s inventory of existing fire facilities was used as the basis for calculating existing facility standards. These standards are used as a baseline for determining new development's fair share obligation for expanded facilities as growth occurs in the Fire District service area.
As of August 1, 2019, the Fire District will have 26 staffed stations to accommodate the existing service population of approximately 730,100. This situation makes for a ratio of one fire station per 28,080 persons in the service population. To maintain the existing station-to-population ratio, the projected growth would require the construction of more than five stations by the year 2040. The Fire District expects to maintain service levels through a number of strategies. These service strategies include relocating stations to improve service response times, constructing new fire stations, and possibly adding engine companies to existing stations. Since the Fire District already has an extensive service network, the system may be enhanced in targeted, efficient, and incremental steps. Any annexation or expansion of the Fire District service area outside of existing boundaries will make additional facilities necessary.
Based on local conditions and past experience in new station construction by the Fire District and neighboring fire districts, the estimated cost for construction of a new fire station is $720 per square foot for a total of $7,923,750, excluding architects, consultants, special studies, project management, and similar costs. In addition, this does not include the cost of new apparatus, which can be $750,000 to $1.5 million per station, or the cost of the station parcel which can be $500,000 to $1,000,000 per site.
The Fire District currently imposes an impact fee of $591 per single-family dwelling unit, $285 per multi-family dwelling unit, and $376, $329, and $219 per 1,000 square feet for office, commercial, and industrial development, respectively, in the unincorporated areas of the Fire District service area, and within the cities of Antioch and Pittsburg.
The updated facilities fees are calculated based on a system facilities standard approach. The system facilities standard approach calculates the level of investment that will be achieved in the Fire District once all planned facilities are built and the service population has increased. This per capita facilities standard is calculated by dividing the total investment in existing and planned facilities by the service population at the planning horizon. As calculated, the per capita facilities standard is $329 per resident and $227 per worker. The table below shows the maximum justified fire protection facilities fee with the cost per capita converted to a fee per unit of new development.
Fire Protection Facilities Fee – System Standard
| |
|
A |
B |
|
C = A x B |
|
D = C x 0.02 |
|
E = C + D |
|
F = E / 1,000 |
Land Use |
|
Cost Per
Capita |
|
|
Base Fee1 |
|
Admin 1 2
Charge |
|
Total Fee1 |
|
Fee per
Sq. Ft. |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Residential |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Single Family |
$ |
329 |
2.89 |
$ |
951 |
$ |
19 |
$ |
970 |
|
|
| Multi-family |
|
329 |
1.37 |
|
451 |
|
9 |
|
460 |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Nonresidential |
$ |
227 |
2.86 |
$ |
649 |
$ |
13 |
$ |
662 |
$ |
0.66 |
| Commercial |
|
227 |
2.50 |
|
568 |
|
11 |
|
579 |
|
0.58 |
1 Fee per dwelling unit, per 1,000 square feet of nonresidential, or per room for hotel.
2 Administrative charge of 2.0 percent for (1) legal, accounting, and other administrative support and (2) impact fee program administrative costs including revenue collection, revenue and cost accounting, mandated public reporting, and fee justification analyses.
The fire facilities impact fee will be collected at the time of building permit issuance. The Fire District will keep the ability to require alternative fees, conditions, dedications, and/or requirements from certain new construction projects in order to maintain or provide fire protection service levels to that new service area, development, or project in accordance with the County General Plan
Should the fire facilities fee not be increased to the proposed levels, the Fire District will not be able to collect sufficient funds to provide adequate facilities to serve the increased population of the unincorporated areas of the County.
Opened the public hearing, received testimony, and closed the hearing.
Concurred with the findings specified in the attached Notice of Findings Report.
Revised Ordinance No. 2019-21 such that the increased fees are effective November 1, 2019.
Adopted the revised attached Ordinance No. 2019-21 which does the following:
1. Determines that the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District's facilities are overextended.
2. Designates the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District as an overextended service area.
3. Sets fire protection facilities fees for the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District as specified in the ordinance.
4. Sets administration fees for the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District as specified in the ordinance.