By james art Riverside County supervisors on Tuesday are scheduled to adopt a set of inflation-driven fee increases that are being imposed on developers in the Coachella Valley as part of a revenue-raising fund that can be applied to future infrastructure improvements.
The Board of Supervisors will consider the proposed Transportation Unified Fee Mitigation Fee — TUMF — increases sought by the Coachella Valley Association of Governments as part of Tuesday’s policy agenda.
The increases would amount to about 3.5 percent in additional development costs for CVAG’s territory, which covers most of eastern Riverside County, including the Interstate 10 cities of Coachella, Indio and Palm Desert.
“The TUMF program aims to ensure that future development will contribute to addressing the impact of new growth on regional transportation infrastructure,” according to a statement posted on the board’s agenda. “Funding raised through the program is being used to build transportation improvements that will be needed to meet future travel demand in the Coachella Valley.”
CVAG’s executive committee proposed the increases in April after reviewing the previous year’s increase in the consumer price index for the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metropolitan area, which is used as a benchmark for the entire Inland Empire.
The proposed increases would see a revised TUMF fee of $2,840 applied to each new single-family residential unit constructed, up from $2,740 currently, while the current commercial development fee would go from $7,130 per 1,000 square feet to $7,385 per 1,000 square feet, and the hotel construction fee will rise from $4,165 per room to $4,315 per room.
Costs incurred by developers are recovered upon collection of revenue from sales and other end use.
The fees, if approved, would take effect on January 1.