On Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2007, the Placer County Board of Supervisors will consider adopting a new Capital Facility Impact Fee for Animal Services. This one-time fee on each new residential unit will help to cover the cost of building or expanding animal services facilities to meet the needs of new residents.
If approved by the Board, fees will range from $59 to $133 for each new dwelling unit. The Countywide General Plan, adopted in 1994, requires that new development pay its fair share of the cost of facilities attributable to county growth. Since the plan’s adoption, the county’s population has increased significantly, and is expected to add another 136,000 residents by 2025.
To meet the needs of this growing population, and the animals they will own, the Board of Supervisors agreed last summer to build a new shelter in South Placer where most new residents live and to expand the existing animal services facility in . The total cost is estimated at $20 million.
cities have been meeting with the county and conducting assessments to determine their future need for county animal services facilities. All the cities except already contract with the county for services at some level. currently contracts with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals for services, but has indicated an interest in joining a countywide shelter program.
Building and expanding shelters will incur costs to the county and the cities that wish to use them. An estimated 35 percent of the cost of these facilities could be generated by the county and cities' adoption of an Animal Services Facility Impact Fee on new residential development. At Tuesday’s meeting, Supervisors will consider requesting that the cities of , Colfax, , Rocklin and the Town of adopt the new Animal Services impact fee in their jurisdictions.
All six cities in the county currently collect Facility Impact Fees on behalf of which are used for facilities needed for other county services, such as the South Placer and which are currently under construction. The one-time fees collected by cities and the county on new single family residences range from $1717.54 to $3,329.57. Existing facility impact fees do not include money for animal shelters.
Further information about the proposed Animal Service Facility Impact Fee is available on the county web site.
To learn what's going on at the Placer County Animal Shelter, read Shelter News.