Sacramento County is taking steps to address the region’s affordable housing crisis. At Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, an ordinance was introduced to amend sections of the Sacramento County Code relating to County impact fees for affordable housing projects, and a resolution was adopted to implement a three-year Development Impact Fee Offset Program.
This three-year pilot program is designed to reduce barriers to affordable housing construction by offsetting certain development impact fees for projects providing housing to low-income residents.
Sacramento County collects development impact fees to fund public infrastructure but acknowledges that these fees can sometimes be a barrier to affordable housing construction.
A little bit of background:
On April 11, 2024, the Board of Supervisors directed staff to explore new and innovative financing mechanisms, including the potential use of up to $10 million ($5 million from the Affordable Housing Incentive General Fund Reserve and up to $5 million from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund and Affordable Housing Ordinance Programs) to help fund a three-year pilot program to offset County development impact fees that are attributable to eligible Affordable Housing Projects.
On Sept. 24, 2024, the Community Development Department came before the Board of Supervisors to present two options for the establishment of a three-year pilot development impact fee offset program, and the Board chose the option that offsets fees for 100% affordable housing projects (up to 80% AMI), with a $10,000 per unit cap. The average cost of County impact fees is estimated at $4 million annually.
At that time, the Board of Supervisors directed staff to come back to introduce an ordinance amending relevant chapters of the Sacramento County Code to capture and implement their preferred option for the Offset Program. The ordinance introduced this week is set for adoption on Jan. 7, 2025.
Staff have been instructed to give a status update on the pilot program in one year, so stay tuned for that!
