Members of the residential development industry are invited to attend a Diablo Water District stakeholder's meeting on June 18, 2015, where details of a proposed partial restoration of the agency's Full Facilities Reserve Charge, or connection fee, will be discussed. The district rolled back its fees in 2011 in response to the housing market crash but those discounts will expire on June 30, 2015.  Full Story 

 The Berkeley City Council has endorsed a  new 1 percent public art fee on new multi-family residential and commercial development. The new fee calls for developers of multi-family projects with five or more units and commercial or industrial buildings to dedicate 1 percent of project construction costs to fund both on-site and citywide publicly accessible art. Full Story

Downtown Berkeley developers constructing buildings of 75 feet or higher would be assessed a community benefit fee between $100 to $150 per square foot under a proposal set to go before city leaders on June 25, 2015. The draft plan calls for charging projects $100 per square foot for the residential portion of the building between 76 and 120 feet and $150 per square foot for housing units above 120 feet. Full Story 

Homeowners who purchased below-market-rate units produced under Dublin's inclusionary housing ordinance will be permitted to sell at market rate to non-income-qualified buyers under certain circumstances. The revision is among a number of administrative updates the City Council adopted in early June 2015. Full Story

Planning and engineering fees are expected to rise significantly under a proposal headed to the Pleasanton City Council on June 16, 2015. Among the proposed increases: A conditional use permit would go from $150 to $3,000; design review would go from $50 to a range of $550 to $1,650; a planned unit development fee would go from $2,000 to as a much as $20,000; and a final map review would go from a minimum of $500 to a minimum of $4,500. Click here for the staff report and a full list of recommended fee increases under agenda item No. 19.

In a somewhat unorthodox process, the Milpitas City Council will deliberate a proposal at its meeting on June 16, 2015, to require all new residential projects to set aside 5 percent of the new units as affordable. City staff has not conducted any outreach on the issue and has not engaged a consultant to produce a nexus study to demonstrate impacts of new development on housing affordability.  Click here to read the proposed sesolution language.

As the Regional Water Quality Control Board moves toward adoption of a revised Bay Area Municipal Regional C.3 Stormwater Permit, BIA's expert members joined with city staffers to review the draft language and submit suggested modifications and final recommendations. Full Story