Fresno City Council Adjusts Development Impact Fees for Police, Fire Facilities and Streets

The Fresno City Council voted June 23, 2022 to adjust development impact fees charged to new construction citywide. The vote amended the city’s Master Fee Schedule to increase fees for police facilities, fire facilities, and traffic signals while decreasing fees for some street projects.

The council adopted nexus studies—technical documents justifying the fees—for five fee programs: citywide regional streets, new growth area major streets, traffic signals, police facilities, and fire facilities. The vote also eliminated the Urban Growth Management impact fee entirely.

The Breakdown

• The council raised fees for police facilities, fire facilities, and traffic signals
• The council lowered fees for citywide regional streets and new growth area major streets
• The council eliminated the Urban Growth Management (UGM) impact fee
• The changes apply to all council districts citywide
• The staff report does not state the dollar amounts of the fee increases or decreases

What This Means for You

Development impact fees affect what new construction costs in Fresno and what public facilities the city can afford to build. The fees fund public infrastructure needed to serve new development. The council’s vote determines how much developers pay per project.

What to Watch

The staff report does not state the actual dollar amounts of the fee increases or decreases. The capital improvement programs the nexus studies incorporate—the lists of projects these fees will fund—are referenced but not detailed in the available material. What police stations, fire stations, or traffic signals will this money actually build, and in which neighborhoods? The material identifies no timeline for those projects and no estimate of total revenue the new fee structure will generate.