Local Government Affairs Committee (LGAC) Meeting Dates and Speakers

Monday, November 18

	Placer County CBO Tim Wegner
	Placer County Public Works Director Ken Grehm

Our November 18 meeting will feature Placer County Chief Building Official Tim Wegner followed by Placer County Director of Public Works Ken Grehm.  Tim will provide updates on Building Department operations and Ken will cover possible changes to the Traffic Mitigation Fee program to meet CATT concerns about assumptions and methodology.

Other agenda items for the LGAC meeting include:  Truckee General Plan and Sustainability/Climate actions, proposed Building Codes from the Town, Placer and Nevada Counties, and LGAC priorities for 2020.

LGAC meetings are usually held the third Monday of the month at the CATT office and start at 4:00 PM. Any CATT member is welcome to attend LGAC meetings.  Please contact CATT Government Affairs Manager Pat Davison at 530.550.9999 or pat@ca-tt.com for more information about LGAC activities or issues of concern to CATT.

TRPA GOVERNING BOARD ADDS ANOTHER CRITERION FOR RELEASE OF RESIDENTIAL ALLOCATIONS

The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) Governing Board took action on October 23 adding a third criterion to be factored into the every two year release of residential allocations.  The next release cycle is 2021.  The third criterion is focused on how local governments address the neighborhood compatibility of short term rentals (STRs). The third criterion will become part of the existing Performance Review System, which is currently used to measure a jurisdiction’s performance on permit monitoring/code compliance and TMDL (water quality) implementation. 

The third criterion is a result of Governing Board response earlier this year to complaints from community activists who repeatedly attended the monthly TRPA Board meetings and voiced criticism of their elected leaders for failure to regulate the number, location, and operation of STRs.  Some Governing Board members were hesitant to release the 2019-2020 complement of allocations to the local jurisdictions, citing the need to prevent the allocations from being used for STRs. Despite the fact that the local jurisdictions had legitimately earned their 2019-2020 allocations by meeting the two criteria already in place, residential allocations became the hostage in a debate this spring over STR regulation. 

On April 24, 2019, prior to the Governing Board distribution of the 2019-2020 residential allocations, the TRPA Local Government & Housing Committee (LG&HC) voted to develop a code amendment to make short-term rental neighborhood compatibility a third criterion of the Performance Review System for the future release of residential allocations and agreed to bring it before the Governing Board by the end of the calendar year (December 2019).

A working group was created in June to assist the TRPA LG&HC draft the third criterion. A “Building Industry” seat was part of the working group with CATT member Mark Salmon (Pinnacle Real Estate Group of Lake Tahoe) and CATT Government Affairs Manager Pat Davison sharing the duty. Other working group members included TRPA Governing Board members, elected officials, representatives from neighborhood and environmental groups, and the real estate community.

Over the summer, CATT and other organizations voiced opposition to proposed locational guidelines because they pinpoint “desirable” locations for STRs and serve as the mechanism to encourage a jurisdiction to move STRs from undesired locations to desired locations.   CATT, the Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce, South Tahoe Association of Realtors®, Tahoe Sierra Board of Realtors®, Incline Village Realtors®, and Sierra Nevada Realtors® collaborated on a letter dated September 23 to point out some of the flaws of the draft locational guidelines and support for the operational and enforcement guidelines.     Click here for the joint letter to the TRPA Local Government & Housing Committee.

On October 11, the Tahoe Daily Tribune quoted from testimony given by CATT member Mark Salmon and CATT Government Affairs Manager Pat Davison at the October 9 TRPA Advisory Planning Commission meeting:  “Mark Salmon, a local real estate agent who advocated against Measure T, asked the commission how much TRPA really wants to dip their feet into short term rentals, saying it’s an issue that should be handled through local government.  That thought was echoed by Pat Davison, government affairs manager for Contractors Association of Truckee Tahoe. He stressed that residential allocation means a lot to his jurisdiction, and that local government needs to maintain control without incurring a penalty. ‘TRPA, it seems, has become the STR battleground,’ Davison said.  ‘What’s happening at TRPA is happening more intensely at the local level. When the rubber hits the road at the local level, we want local decision makers to have the power, not TRPA.’ ”  The TDT article also ran in the Northern Nevada Business View.

CATT’s long standing position has been simple – let the local jurisdiction make land use decisions. A local elected official faces a risk if he or she ignores the wishes of the majority.  Those who must live with the decision should be involved in the site specific land use process, not TRPA. 

The final set of neighborhood compatibility guidelines cover Locational (Land Use), Operational, and Enforcement practices.  Jurisdictions receive points if they meet the stated guidelines or provide substitute guidelines that meet the intent of the Regional Plan Land Use and Transportation Goals and Policies and environmental thresholds to reduce dependency on automobiles, concentrate certain uses into Town centers, near significant recreational amenities or tourist facilities, and along major transit routes.

Local jurisdictions will have the opportunity to provide a written response as to how they are managing STR neighborhood compatibility based on the new guidelines.  It is possible public comment could either challenge or support the local government written response as allocation release is considered by the TRPA Performance Review Committee, Advisory Planning Commission, or Governing Board.  A jurisdiction must accumulate 90 points from the new neighborhood compatibility guidelines in order to receive its full share of allocations.

TRPA did a baseline count of STRs by jurisdiction and location.  Tracking over time will reveal if the amount of undesired STRs has been reduced.  Here is one of the charts showing baseline numbers (10-23-19 meeting packet, item VIII.A, page 6):

Table 1: Percentage of STRs within a Town Center, Within a Quarter Mile of a Town Center, Transit Stop, and Major Highway by Jurisdiction in the Tahoe Region
 

*Percentages in the above table are calculated independently of each other, so they do not total to 100%.

** STR permit data from El Dorado County, Douglas County, and City of South Lake Tahoe and STR Transit Occupancy Tax (TOT) certificate data from Placer County.

*** Washoe County percentages were calculated using the locations identified off of AirBnB (547 locations were recorded), while the total number of STRs (963) is what was counted by Host Compliance and reported to TRPA via the North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District.

To access all TRPA documents related to the third criterion, go to http://www.trpa.org/short-term-rental-neighborhood-compatibility/

This issue may not be over.  Some community activists are not satisfied with the “flexibility” of these new guidelines (because the guidelines are not prescriptive) and the fact some jurisdictions have plenty of banked allocations and can afford to lose some (so may not comply).  At the October 23 TRPA Regional Plan Implementation Committee meeting where the third criterion was vetted before moving on to the Governing Board,  one committee member seemed uneasy with the guidelines as proposed and suggested that perhaps staff could come back with options to prevent allocations from being used for STRs.

For more information on this issue, please contact CATT Government Affairs Manager Pat Davison at 530.550.9999 or pat@ca-tt.com

TRUCKEE & NORTHSTAR FIRE MITIGATION FEE INFLATIONARY ADJUSTMENTS COMING SOON

On November 19, the Truckee Fire Protection District Board of Directors will review an annual inflationary adjustment to mitigation fees.  The proposed increase is 1.3%, based on the percentage change to the 20 cities Engineering News-Record “Construction Cost Index (ENR-CCI)” for the month of September. 

Here are the current and proposed fee amounts:

Mitigation fees for Northstar Fire, which is part of the Northstar Community Service District (NCSD), also are going up.  The NCSD Board of Directors voted on October 16 to raise the fees by 2.5%, based on increases to the ENR-CCI for the month of March.  The current fee is $1.11 per square foot assessed on all new enclosed/habitable construction of over 500 square feet in size, including commercial, residential, miscellaneous buildings, and garages.  The increase is $0.03 per SF.  New construction in the Highlands portion of NCSD and other parts of the District covered by a CFD or Mello-Roos district are not assessed this mitigation fee.

For both fire districts, the mitigation fee increases must still be approved by either County or Town of Truckee, depending on which agency has land use authority. Typically, mitigation fee increases are effective 60 days after approval by the land use authority.

For more information about the fire district mitigation fees, please contact CATT Government Affairs Manager Pat Davison at 530.550.9999 or pat@ca-tt.com

TRUCKEE FIRE FINALLY GETS PROPERTY TAX SHARE FROM PLACER COUNTY

October 22 was a historic day for Truckee Fire Protection District!  That’s the day when the Placer County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 to provide a share of the County “Fire Control Fee” to Truckee Fire, ending a decades-long problem that surfaced after the implementation of Prop 13 in the late 1970’s.   The new tax share comes primarily from collected revenue paid by Martis Valley property owners and owners in smaller areas, such as along the Truckee River corridor and Airport Business Park.  Martis Valley and specific smaller areas were annexed to Truckee Fire in 1974.

In 2011, CATT member John Pruyn (High West Landscape Architects) and CATT Government Affairs Manager Pat Davison joined with TFPD Board Member Gerald Herrick and Chris Parker from Sugar Bowl to address the “good government” problem where Placer County-collected property taxes from certain TFPD-annexed areas were not being distributed back to TFPD.  That distribution is a normal function of the property tax system and how local agencies pay for some of their operating expenses. 

For 8 years, TFPD Board Member Gerald Herrick championed the cause without wavering - his leadership was invaluable and kept everyone going in the right direction.  Others in the community also expressed support for a change that would restore more fairness and equity to the picture.  Until the new tax share agreement was approved, Nevada County property taxpayers were subsidizing the operations of Truckee Fire in Placer County. Our persistence finally paid off! 

Truckee Fire Chief Bill Seline prepared this statement for CATT:

"Because of a proposition 13 unintended consequence back in the 70's, Truckee Fire was not receiving any property tax from the Martis Valley, but was still obligated to provide services.  Property owners were paying their full share of taxes to Placer County, however, none of it was coming back to Truckee Fire.  The Fire District noticed the problem around 2010 and then began 10 years of appeals to the County to share some of the windfall they were receiving from the area. 

Once the District became aware of the inequity Pat Davison and other CATT members immediately took a leadership role by starting a Citizens Committee to work with the District.  ‘Pat and CATT were instrumental in resolving this issue,’ said Fire Chief Bill Seline. ‘In the beginning Pat dug into the details and did some really solid research that identified exactly what went wrong when proposition 13 was implemented. A number of other CATT members served on the Committee over the years providing ongoing focus and recommendations to the District on the matter,’ said Seline. 

After years of work, Placer County finally decided to share 40% of a portion of the property tax called ‘Fire Control Fee’ with the District, finalizing the decision at their last Board of Supervisor meeting on October 22. This will shift about $200k of property tax to the District annually.  ‘This was the right thing to do,’ said Chief Seline, ‘we are elated with the decision and could not have got it done without the help of the Community Leaders like Pat Davison and CATT.’ " 

For more information about the TFPD property tax situation, please contact CATT Government Affairs Manager Pat Davison at 530.550.9999 or pat@ca-tt.com

USE COMPLAINT FORM FOR PLAN CHECK & INSPECTION PROBLEMS

CATT Government Affairs Manager Pat Davison created a complaint form that can be used to document a problem with plan check or building inspection. This form allows CATT to track the complaint and also gives the managing entity specific detail for remedy. The complaint outline is simple:

• Project address
• Building permit #
• Date problem occurred
• Brief description of what happened
• Your opinion – what should have happened instead
• Your name and contact info

Click here to download the form.  A fillable form is also posted on the CATT webpage at http://www.ca-tt.com/lgac-issues

For more information about the complaint form and CATT involvement once the form is filed, please contact CATT Government Affairs Manager Pat Davison at 530.550.9999 or pat@ca-tt.com

CATT PRIORITIES FOR 2019

This list was unanimously approved by LGAC at their regular meeting December 17, 2018:

2019 PRIORITY ISSUES TO BE HANDLED BY CATT GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS MANAGER PAT DAVISON

1. Mitigation Fees – coordinate with LGAC as a whole
Review Annual Updates (all jurisdictions)
Resolve issues with Placer County Traffic Mitigation Fees
Seek Placer County Traffic Fee conversion to SF
Monitor/Comment on Northstar Fire Mitigation Fee Study (if Martis Valley West annexation occurs)
Update CATT Mitigation Fee POLICY re when mitigation fee is calculated and 500 SF trigger for additions (all jurisdictions)         

2. Truckee General Plan Update – coordinate with specific LGAC committee

3. Placer County Plan Check/Inspection Procedures & Timelines – coordinate with specific LGAC committee

4. Affordable/Workforce Housing – coordinate with specific LGAC committee (House Truckee First, Truckee funding options, Truckee 2nd unit incentives, Placer in lieu fee and small project exemption, 2nd units on smaller parcels with septic systems, Mountain Housing Council, Factory _OS tour, etc)

5. North Tahoe Fire Hydrant Requirements – coordinate with specific LGAC committee

OTHER - Continue to provide reports and information, conduct leadership training and identify committee recruits, assist with fundraising for the Issues Action Fund, attend CATT meetings, read files for scanning, and perform other administrative duties as needed.  Continue to emphasize the importance of CATT members being involved in issues to affect the outcome.

2019 PRIORITY ISSUES TO BE HANDLED BY LGAC MEMBERS & OTHERS:

Placer County Structural Observations Report – John Wood
Multi-Jurisdictional Building Working Group – Jamie Brimer & Mike Nethersole
North Tahoe Fire Plan Check Process – Pat Souza
Truckee Citizens Oversight Tax Committee – Craig Weaver
Truckee Fire Property Tax Distribution – John Pruyn
Fire/Building Code Changes (all jurisdictions) – Jamie Brimer & Brad Altman

DONATE TO CATT "ISSUES ACTION FUND"

The Construction Industry is heavily regulated, with codes, fees, and policies changing on a regular basis at all levels of government. Many times, CATT dialogue with agency staff or elected officials can remove impediments or resolve problems.

But sometimes, CATT needs to take action to protect your industry in a different way. That's why you will hear the refrain: The World Is Run By Those Who Show Up with a call to action - comment now or attend a meeting. That's also why you will hear about CATT hiring experts or consultants to provide supporting information as a way to change the outcome of some code, fee, or policy proposal.

Consultants and experts give CATT an added boost, reinforcing a point from an outside perspective. That could make the difference between a questionable proposal getting adopted as is and one getting modified to be more reasonable. 

CATT's Issues Action Fund is a dedicated fund set up to channel donations to those special issues where an expert or consultant can make a positive difference. LGAC oversees the Issues Action Fund. Please consider making a donation to the IAF today as a way to protect your tomorrow. Download the donation form here.

For more information about the CATT Issues Action Fund, please contact CATT Government Affairs Manager Pat Davison (530.550.9999 or pat@ca-tt.com)

WHAT IS LGAC?

CATT's Local Government Affairs Committee is a permanent committee composed of members who are interested in Fees - Codes - Regulation - Policy. This is the committee that analyzes issues affecting the building industry and determines CATT position and strategy. This committee works very closely with CATT Government Affairs Manager Pat Davison.

Bring your problems or concerns to LGAC. You may think you are alone when in reality others may be experiencing the same problems. LGAC could be the place to help you find a remedy. Experience the power of numbers with CATT as your ally.

Come to the LGAC meeting and learn what is happening with TRPA, the Town of Truckee, Special Districts, and the three Counties. Find out what CATT is doing to improve conditions for you and the building industry.

WHO IS LGAC?

CATT’s Local Government Affairs Committee (LGAC) has 18 members.  LGAC Chair is Craig Weaver (MOBO Law, LLP), Vice Chair is Cody Heller (Heller Construction, Inc.).      Committee members are: Steve Cooper (Aegis Insurance Markets), Eric Slominski (Barrish Pelham & Associates), Jamie Brimer (Brimer Construction & Plumbing), Chip Huck (CST Holdings, LLC), Dan Fraiman (Daniel Fraiman Construction), Heather Rankow (Developer’s Connection), Michael Forshee (Forshee Construction), Pat Souza (Heslin Construction), John Pruyn (High West Landscape Architects), John Wood (Loverde Builders, Inc.), Ryan Marsden (Marsden Architects), Brian McEneaney (McEneaney Construction), Mitch Clarin (Mitchell T. Clarin), Kristi Thompson (MWA, Inc.), Justin Bertoli (NSM Corporation), and Christian Edwards (Timberline Construction).

If fees, regulations, codes, and policy interest you, contact LGAC Chair Craig Weaver at 530.214.8700 or weaver@mobolaw.com