If you work in municipal finance, planning, or public works, you have probably heard the name "Sheetz" mentioned in the same breath as "impact fees" over the past two years. It is worth understanding this case well, because it is the most important thing to happen to development impact fee law in a generation, and it is still not fully resolved. Here is the story in plain terms, why it matters, and why it makes a properly documented nexus study more important than ever. How it started: a...

On most Development Impact Fee nexus studies I complete, the same question comes up before the study goes to council for adoption: "Why are the fees so high?" It is a reasonable question. And it points to a distinction worth making explicit, because it shapes how cities should think about the work we deliver: "Our responsibility is to calculate the maximum amount the law allows. The city's responsibility is to determine the appropriate amount to actually adopt." Under California's Mitigation...

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