2024 Proposed Legislation Impacting Municipal Fees and Charges and Public Agencies
The California Legislature’s 2024 legislative calendar is now in full swing. Baker Manock & Jensen’s Water and Public Agency teams have been monitoring dozens of bills related to water, public agencies, air quality, environmental permitting, and municipal fees and charges. Below we highlight eleven pending bills that will impact public agencies and municipal fees and charges.
If you have questions about how these pending bills may impact you, please contact Shareholder Lauren D. Layne at 559-432-5400.
AB 1820: Housing development projects: applications: fees and exactions.
Asm. Schiavo (D- Chatsworth). This bill would, among other things, authorize a development proponent that submits a preliminary application for a housing development project to request a preliminary fee and exaction estimate, as defined, and would require the local agency to provide the estimate within 20 business days of the submission of the preliminary application. For development fees imposed by an agency other than a city or county, the bill would require the development proponent to request the fee schedule from the agency that imposes the fee.
AB 1827: Local government: fees and charges: water: higher-consumptive water parcels.
Asm. Papan ( D- San Mateo). This bill would allow local water agencies when imposing or increasing fees or charges for property-related water service pursuant to Proposition 218, to include the incrementally higher costs of water service due to any of the following: (1) higher water usage demand of parcels; (2) maximum potential water use of parcels; (3) Projected peak water usage; or (4) Any combination of paragraphs (1) to (3), inclusive. This bill would apply retrospectively and prospectively, impacting pending litigation.
AB 2257: Local government: property-related water and sewer fees and assessments: remedies.
Asm. Wilson (D- Suisun City). This bill would create an optional exhaustion of remedies process that public agencies could implement when considering a new, increased, or extended property related fee or assessment pursuant to Proposition 218. If a local agency complies with specified procedures, this bill would prohibit a person or entity from bringing a judicial action or proceeding alleging noncompliance with Article XIII D, sections 4 or 6, for any new, increased, or extended property related fee or assessment, unless that person or entity has timely submitted to the local agency a written objection to that fee or assessment that specifies the grounds for alleging noncompliance. It also clarifies what information is contained in the administrative record of a local agency’s adoption of a property related fee or assessment.
SB 1072: Local government: Proposition 218: remedies.
Sen. Padilla (D- San Diego). This bill would require, if a property-related fee or charge creates revenues in excess of the local governments reasonable cost of providing the specific benefit or specific government service, that the excess revenues be used only to reduce the subsequently adopted and following property-related fee or charge. The bill would declare that this provision is declaratory of existing law.
SB 937: Development projects: permits and other entitlements: fees and charges.
Sen. Wiener (D- San Francisco). This bill would limit the Mitigation Fee Act’s utility service fees exception to utility service fees related to connections, and cap those fees at the costs incurred by the utility provider resulting from the connection activities. The act authorizes a local agency to require the payment sooner than the date of the final inspection or the date the certificate of occupancy is issued, whichever occurs first, if specified conditions are met, including if the fees or charges are to reimburse the local agency for expenditures previously made.
SB 1210: New housing construction: electrical, gas, sewer, and water service connections: charges.
Sen. Skinner (D- Berkeley). This bill would, for new housing construction, require certain electrical, sewer, and water utilities to publicly post on their internet websites (1) the amount of any charge issued for a service connection, capacity, or other point of connection charge by the housing units address, and (2) the schedule of fees for a service connection, capacity, or other point of connection charge, as specified.
PUBLIC AGENCIES
AB 805: Sewer service: disadvantaged communities.
Asm. Arambula (D- Fresno). This bill would authorize the SWRCB to order consolidation of sewer and wastewater utilities and require a public agency to take over a failing sewer system and assume responsibility and liability for all deferred maintenance, rehabilitation needs, and regulatory compliance. Under existing law, annexation or government reorganization is under the jurisdiction or each county’s Local Area Formation Commission (“LAFCO”). This bill would give the SWRCB new authority to order a designated sewer system to hand over management and control of their system without consideration by LAFCO.
AB 817: Open meetings: teleconferencing: subsidiary body.
Asm. Pacheco (D- Downey). This bill would, until January 1, 2026, authorize a subsidiary body to use teleconferencing without complying with existing Brown Act provisions that require a majority of the legislative body to participate from locations within the boundaries of the local agency’s jurisdiction and to post each teleconference location, if the subsidiary body complies with certain requirements. Under this bill, the legislative body that established the subsidiary body would need to make certain findings regarding enhancing public access and promoting attraction, retention, and diversity of subsidiary body members, before the subsidiary body uses teleconferencing for the first time, and every 12 months thereafter.
AB 2302: Open meetings: local agencies: teleconferences.
Asm. Addis (D- Morro Bay). This bill would revise existing Brown Act limits on the number of times a member of legislative body may participate via teleconferencing to no more than two meetings per year, if the legislative body meets regularly once per month or less; five meetings per year, if the legislative body regularly meets twice per month; or seven meetings per year, if the legislative body regularly meets three or more times per month. This bill would define “meeting” as any number of meetings of the legislative body of a local agency that begin on the same calendar day.
AB 2735: Joint powers agreements: public utilities.
Asm. Rubio (D- Baldwin Park). This bill would authorize a water corporation, as defined, to enter into a joint powers agreement with a public agency for (i) the purpose of jointly exercising any power common to the contracting parties; (ii) to provide insurance, as specified, by a joint powers agreement; and (iii) to enter into a joint powers agreement for the purposes of risk-pooling, as specified.
SB 1156: Groundwater sustainability agencies: financial disclosures.
Sen. Hurtado (D- Sanger). This bill would require members of the executive team, board of directors, and other groundwater management decision makers of GSAs to annually disclose any economic or financial interests pursuant to the Political Reform Act of 1974 that may reasonably be considered to affect their decision-making related to groundwater management. The bill would require the Fair Political Practices Commission (“FPPC”) to establish guidelines and procedures for the submission and review of those disclosures and authorize the FPPC to investigate and take appropriate enforcement actions for violations of the disclosure requirements.
By Lauren’s law practice focuses on general water and environmental law, including CEQA and NEPA compliance, and includes various business transactional matters in the areas of water rights, water quality, public agency law, agribusiness, and real property.
By Kaitlin’s legal practice focuses on water and natural resources law, water rights, water quality, municipal rates and fees, public agency law, agribusiness, eminent domain, real property, and general civil litigation.
Disclaimer
This Legal Update / Bulletin is for educational purposes only as well as to give you general information and a general understanding of the law, not to provide specific legal advice. This update should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a licensed professional attorney in your state.
