At this holiday season, RCS would like to give thanks to all the cities, counties, and special districts that made our 45 years possible. We hope that you had a wonderful 2025 and hope that 2026 is even better!

Earlier this month we were pleased to present a session on the Nuts and Bolts of Fees at the California Municipal Revenue & Tax Association Conference. It was a great conference, and if you are not yet a member of CMRTA, we suggest that you check them out at www.cmrta.org . The session provided an overview of User Fees and Development Impact Fees, including: Constitutional Background Methodology Recent Court Cases and Legislation Accounting and Reporting Even if you were not

AB-602 made one thing clear: for California’s largest jurisdictions, charging development impact fees without a detailed roadmap of...

This is a “shout out” to someone that I greatly admired. I first met Ronny Coleman while doing a study for the City of San Clemente,...

In the realm of municipal planning and infrastructure funding, Development Impact Fees (DIFs)  serve a crucial purpose: to ensure that...

In 2013, I wrote an article looking at the big picture of contracting. I felt it made sense to contract if your agency was too small to...

I recently came across a few DIF calculation studies where the impact fees were calculated upon the concept of an Equivalent Dwelling...

If you are attending the CSMFO Conference in San Jose next week, please stop by Booth 522 and say Hi. See you there.

Building & Safety fees for new construction have historically been charged based on the construction value of the work being done.  This...

The recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the Sheetz v. El Dorado  court case has made the Nollan/Dolan Standards prominent in discussions...

There are many ways to charge fees to recover the costs of providing services.  The only requirement is that you broadly don’t charge...

What many readers think of as a “Fee Study” was created by RCS (née Management Services Institute) back in 1980. We called the “Study” a...

AB-1600 (1989), later Chaptered as Government Code 66000, identified and codified the process and nexus effort required to calculate and...

AB 602 came into effect on January 1, 2022. One of the Assembly Bill's main goals was to create more transparency for development impact...

Building & Safety fees for new construction have historically been charged based on the construction value of the work being done.  This...

As most of you are neck deep in your budget, we thought we would remind you about some budgetary pitfalls that we have experienced over...

Over the many years of calculating development impact fees, RCS has largely worked with cities/public agencies that have had significant...

If you are attending the CSMFO Conference in Anaheim next week, please stop by Booth 426 and say Hi. And if you are coming on Tuesday,...

The Master Facilities Plan (MFP) is a valuable tool for effective urban planning and development. It serves as a comprehensive, long-term...

When reviewing fee recommendations with staff as part of a Cost of Services Study, there are often discussions about what they think the...