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.

Affordable Housing Week - Groundbreaking!

This week is Affordable Housing Week. In celebration, we are having the official groundbreaking ceremony for the Ambassador. The information flyer tells you that on Friday, May 18, from 3:30 until 4:30 there will be an event at 1168 36th St. (corner of Peralta). What most impresses me about this project (that has been in the works for about 10 years) is that it is 68 affordable housing units with a significant number of 2 and 3 bedroom units, suitable for families. We know Emeryville has a low number of families, and we know that our housing stock has a low number of larger units. With the Ambassador, we can welcome more families to Emeryville, which is very important considering our efforts to strengthen our schools and build the Center of Community Life. Please join us in celebrating a milestone in our affordable housing efforts.

Last Friday, May 11, I had the honor of speaking at another groundbreaking event -- this one for the 64th & Christie apartments at the Public Market. The ceremony was well attended and also highlighted Emeryville's efforts to include affordable housing in developments that receive funding assistance from the City or former Redevelopment Agency. This development will have 29 affordable housing units in the 193 unit development. At that event, we also got a tour of the Green Living Room, an outdoor space that is under construction to highlight innovative green technologies you can touch and see. The new Urban Outfitters is nearly complete (opening June 7), and also reuses wood and materials from older buildings. The upgrade of the Public Market is impressive, especially when you learn the details of how much of the materials are finding a new life here after spending as much as 100 years in another building that was then demolished. Stop by Hot Italian, a new, delicious pizza place and bar. (I heard they are showing Breaking Away, a great bike movie from my hometown, Bloomington, Indiana on Thursday, May 24.)