CIAQC Special Report on SCAQMD Development Fee Plans
Preliminary Draft 2007 AQMP: 100 Ton Shortfall Puts Pressure On Development
The South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) is mandated to adopt a 2007 Air Quality Management Plan (AQMP) containing emission control measures capable of achieving Federal Clean Air Act standard deadlines in the South Coast Air Basin. Covering all of Orange, and most of Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino Counties, the AQMP must demonstrate attainment of the federal 8-hour ozone standard by 2021; the 2007 AQMP will also address the federal very fine particulate standard, which must be attained by 2014.
The control concepts identified to date by SCAQMD, the California Air Resources Board, and US Environmental Protection Agency fall short by roughly 100 tons per day of needed Nitrogen Oxides emission reductions in 2014. This results in added pressure to regulate even relatively small sources of emissions.
To read the full text of the AQMP click here.
SCAQMD Executive Officer Barry Wallerstein plans to invite public comment on nearly a dozen new concepts that affect various aspects of development in the preliminary draft AQMP. The most onerous of these concepts would regulate development projects. This proposal would regulate emissions caused by building components or a future building occupant vehicle use to be reduced below the level considered reasonable and feasible under California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). If this isn’t accomplished, the developer would be required to pay a fee for unmitigated emissions.
New South Coast Development/Redevelopment Emission Reduction Proposal
SCAQMD proposes to include a control measure in the 2007 AQMP that would require regulation of “Emission growth management for new or redevelopment indirect source projects” including new residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional development. New homes, schools, and road and highway construction would all be affected.
SCAQMD proposes to require project sponsors to mitigate project construction, building component and operational/vehicle emissions down to or below significance thresholds set in SCAQMD’s CEQA Air Quality Handbook.
Mobile emissions from vehicles driving to and from facilities in the future would be the major source of emissions for most projects. The rule would require that project sponsors pay a fee into an SCAQMD air quality improvement fund for any emissions that are not mitigated down to the level of CEQA significance.
Although the rule would reference SCAQMD’s CEQA significance thresholds as the goal for mitigation, the rule and the mitigation requirement would be imposed separate from the CEQA process.
The emission benefits of SCAQMD’s proposal have not been calculated. SCAQMD cannot yet identify how much emission growth is due to new development in comparison with existing development. Nor has SCAQMD proposed how large the mitigation fee would be.
Recent Precedents for Development Mitigation Fee
San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District Rule 9510, adopted December 2005, set a precedent for SCAQMD by imposing development mitigation fees on new residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional development in the 8-county Central Valley Air Basin.
Project sponsors must mitigate construction NOx emissions by 20 percent and construction PM-10 by 45 percent; and operational NOx emissions by 33.3 percent and operational PM-10 by 50 percent; or pay a fee for emissions not mitigated. San Joaquin Valley APCD estimates the average fee per housing unit at $1,772/d.u. in 2008 and beyond.
A typical light industrial project would pay $300,677 in 2010; a typical industrial park would pay would pay $180,926 in 2010.
Commercial projects would pay fees ranging from $186,000 for a typical convenience shopping center, to $450,500 for a mini-mart with gas station, to $8.36 million for a super-regional shopping center in 2010. All of these estimates assume no on-site air mitigation. The San Joaquin Valley APCD estimates $103 million in revenues in the first 3 years alone, with two-thirds from commercial and industrial projects.
The San Joaquin Valley APCD will generate an estimated $123 million in new bureaucracy over 5 years (vs. a $36 million annual APCD budget) based on the Governing Board’s initial budget for the first year.
Imperial County APCD also expects to adopt a development mitigation fee in 2007. Early concepts call for project sponsors to pay a flat fee of $675 per single family unit; $375 per multiple family unit; $2.75 per square foot for commercial development; and $.30 per square foot for industrial development.
Builder/Construction Industry Response
The Building Industry Association of Southern California (BIASC) and the Construction Industry Air Quality Coalition (CIAQC) are working in partnership to shape the outcome of development-related controls in the South Coast AQMP through the following actions:
- Identify approaches to reducing construction, building component, and vehicle emissions related to development that do not duplicate, compete or conflict with CEQA air quality analysis and mitigation requirements and existing local government development permit processes.
- Conduct policy, scientific and legal analyses of SCAQMD proposals; develop recommended approaches; document industry comments and recommendations on the public record; and resolve differences with the SCAQMD prior to AQMP adoption.
- Ensure that reasonable, feasible alternatives to reduce development-related emissions--without command-and-control rules and fees -- are included and analyzed in the Draft AQMP and DEIR, to insure that they are legally available for Board adoption in the Final 2007 AQMP.
- Develop a coalition of allied interests to include local governments, school districts, transportation agencies and a broad base of affected business and industry stakeholders.
- Gain SCAQMD Governing Board member support for BIA/CIAQC positions and recommendations
- Secure BIA/CIAQC preferred approach to development-related emission reduction in the final adopted 2007 AQMP.