Russ Steele
We have all been reading about the dust up at the Transportation Commission with Grass Valley City Council over development mitigation fees and there is another story in the Union this morning. A story that includes some statements by Grass Valley officials that need a second look.
Trina Kleist writes in todays Union the City looks to double traffic impact fees
County not moving fast enough to fund projects, Grass Valley says
I was not at the Commission Meeting on Wednesday, I had a schedule conflict and had to be in Sierra County. I can understand Grass Valley's frustration about the slow pace of the process, as expressed in this statement, but you need to know the rest of the story:
"Grass Valley got frustrated with waiting around," Foltz said.
If I had been at the meeting I would have pointed out that one of the significant delays in the mitigation fee process was Grass Valley failure to provide their latest land use data to the NCTC traffic modeling contractor as scheduled. Mitigation fees are about future development impacts, so it is important to have some idea about what those impacts might be. Land use is a vital element of that assessment. I am not sure how many months this data was delayed, but it was over several NCTC Meetings, and we meet every other month. Watch for an update with the actual months of delay.
Why has the process been so long? The Commission new that there would be a major jump in the fee rate, since the original mitigation fee process did not have a method for annually escalating the fee for inflation. Thus, years went by with out any increases. Also, the existing process focuses too much on commercial development, and now enough on development outside the city. Knowing that a large fee jump would be challenged, the Commission wanted to have a rock solid process and hired some expert contractors who have helped other regional transportation agencies come up with effective solutions to both problems. The will of the Commission was to "get it right."
Sometimes getting it right requires the use of a systematic process that takes into consideration of all the factors. But, that process can stall when key data elements are missing, like Grass Valley's land use data.
