Development Impact Fees

Emeryville has put in place new fees to be charged to development projects as they get permits to build. These impact fees will pay for three things: transportation improvements, parks, and affordable housing. The staff report from our July 15, 2014 city council meeting are available for you to read here. These fees help to replace some of the funds we lost when redevelopment was dissolved. Some redevelopment funds (20%) were required to be used for affordable housing before 2012.

Putting these fees in place first required nexus studies to be done, showing how new development will create an additional need for transportation improvements, parks and affordable housing. The nexus studies took a year and a half to complete, and they are available for you to read. They are very interesting, both in the methodology and the statistics shared. All are available on the city website at http://emeryville.org/index.aspx?NID=971.

Transportation Impact Fees
The transportation impact fees are supported by this study completed by Fehr & Peers. Originally established in 1998, the transportation impact fees have already paid for many improvements from our previous list, and are based on new trips generated by different land uses. There is a new list of approved projects that the fees can go toward on pages 11-15 of the report, totaling approximately $100 million. Many of these projects will improve transportation not only for cars, but for transit, pedestrians and bicyclists as well, as we continue to improve our multi-modal transportation elements. The fee can be adjusted by the council from time to time. We set the transportation impact fee at 20% of the maximum allowed by the study.

Park and Recreation Impact Fees
The park and recreation impact fees are supported by this study completed by Willdan. These fees cannot pay for facilities that fix our existing deficit of parks, but can pay for new parks needed based on the new development. Right now Emeryville has park acreage of 1.32 acres per 1,000 service population (which includes people who work in town and use the parks now, but at a weighted or reduced number). Parks are very expensive to develop in a place like Emeryville, with limited open space, often requiring the removal of other uses first. We set the park impact fee at 25% of the maximum allowed by the study.

Affordable Housing Impact Fees
The affordable housing impact fees are supported by this study of residential development and another study of non-residential Jobs-Housing nexus for development, both completed by Keyser Marston. These fees will go toward new affordable housing units developed in Emeryville, recognizing the need for units affordable to all who work in our community. Every new market rate unit in Emeryville increases the need for affordable housing as well, since the future residents will eat at restaurants, buy things at retail stores and get their cars fixed. Each new unit will cause a fee of $20,000 per unit to be paid toward future affordable housing, well below the $35,600 allowed by the study. For commercial, the council established the fees at $4/sf, instead of the $66.00 to $244.00/sf fee maximum allowed by the study.

Here is a table showing projected fees from future developments in town.
This table compares Emeryville's proposed fees with other nearby cities.

The fees adopted for affordable housing were higher for commercial and office use than the staff had initially proposed. Instead of $2/square foot, the council voted to raise it to $4/sf.

Emeryville Center of Community Life (ECCL)

At our special council meeting on Wednesday, August 6, 2014, the city council will be considering our agreement with Emery Unified School District (EUSD) to move forward on the Emeryville Center of Community Life (ECCL) project you can see starting construction on San Pablo Ave at 53rd. This project is the culmination of years of planning, and will create a single K-12 school with a Recreation Center, Library and health and community services, all under one roof. The staff report for this item is here. The supporting resolutions and contracts are quite long, but can be found on the agenda, item number 6.1.

The council has two items to consider:

1. the Joint Occupancy Agreement, which covers 
• Project Lease
• Finance Agreement
• Governance
• Operations, Maintenance and Shared Use Agreement
• Design and Construction Agreement
• General Conditions
2. The construction contract with Turner Construction, which came in at $58.6 million.

Please attend the meeting if you can make it to hear updates on the project and share your opinion on the ECCL project. City Hall is at 1333 Park Ave.

Minimum Wage

At our special meeting this coming Weds, August 6 (starting at 6:00 pm), the council will be considering whether to direct staff to bring back an item on setting a minimum wage for our city. You have likely heard lots about this topic recently, as Oakland and Berkeley both are in the process of considering this as well -- Berkeley by ordinance, and Oakland by ballot measure. The Bay Area is an expensive place to live (just look at our recently submitted Housing Element), and workers earning the lowest permissible wages are not able to get by. A report analyzing the Lift Up Oakland ballot measure that will be on the ballot in November said that the measure would bring an raise to 40,000 workers in Oakland alone, 79% of whom are Latino or African American workers, with a vast majority in their twenties or older (not just teenagers). This is a social justice issue.

I am eager to hear the staff presentation and listen to my colleagues discuss this important issue as well. Please join us and bring your thoughts and comments!

Wednesday, August 6, 2014 at City Hall, 1333 Park Ave. starting at 6:00 pm!

Charter City Update August 2014

On Weds, August 6, 2014, at 6:00 pm at City Hall, the City Council has a special meeting and one of the items is considering placing a Charter City ballot initiative on the ballot for November 4, 2014. There are many good reasons to vote for this ballot initiative, which I will explain further below. The Council is considering funding measures to diversify our revenue sources.

First of all, a Charter City is not the same as a Charter School. Charter cities (as distinguished from General Law cities) have the opportunity to enact charter amendments. Our drafted Charter is very short and simple, no tricks or big changes. The only amendment that the Emeryville City Council is interested in enacting at this time is a Real Property Transfer Tax (which will also appear on the November ballot, and will be considered next Weds, August 6 as well). This tax at the time of sale of a property will provide funds to partially replace those we lost when redevelopment agencies were dissolved two years ago. The tax is being considered at $12 per every $1,000 of valuation at the time of sale. This is lower than both Berkeley and Oakland's $15 per $1,000.

Taken together, these measures would create a guaranteed source of local funding for vital city services that, by law, cannot be taken by Sacramento, ensuring our tax dollars stay local for the benefit of Emeryville residents.

Emeryville residents enjoy the benefits of our clean, safe, and well-maintained city. Because our police and fire services are top-notch, Emeryville is a desirable place to live and do business. These measures help the city to maintain excellent public safety services.

These measures help support the services that make Emeryville a great community and are important to our local quality of life, such as neighborhood parks and open space, youth and senior services, and clean, safe streets and roads.

Please share your thoughts on these ballot measures, and help Emeryville by supporting them this Fall!