Ord 2010-76ORDINANCE NO. 76
AN ORDINANCE OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE
COSTA MESA SANITARY DISTRICT REVISING THE CHARGES
COLLECTED BY THE DISTRICT AND ESTABLISHING THAT
FIXTURE FEES ARE CAPACITY CHARGES AND MAKING
RELATED CLARIFYING CHANGES
WHEREAS, the District has long charged for fixture fees, those being set dollar
amounts charged per plumbing fixture in a proposed development; and
WHEREAS, said monies were deposited in a Facilities Revolving Fund and were
only used for the purposes set forth therein which specified that such money be used for
the acquisition, construction and reconstruction of sewerage facilities; and
WHEREAS, the law governing what a public agency may charge for capacity
charges has developed and changed since the Facilities Revolving Fund was
established as a depository for Fixture Fee money; and
WHEREAS, the Board of Directors does hereby desire to revise the way money
is charged, collected and accounted for to recognize the capacity charge law
(Government Code Section 66013 et seq.); and
WHEREAS, the Board does hereby desire to make other conforming changes to
the District's ordinances to comply with laws and updated procedures;
NOW, THEREFORE, the Board of Directors of the Costa Mesa Sanitary District
does hereby ORDAIN as follows:
Section 1. That Chapter 7.05 of the Costa Mesa Sanitary District Operations Code is
hereby amended to read as follows:
"Chapter 7.05
Development and Miscellaneous Fees, Permits and Charges
Section 7.05.010. Introduction. The Sanitary District collects various fees;
permits and charges related to development approvals and other miscellaneous
services the District provides. This Chapter shall describe those fees, permits and
charges and clarify why the same are paid and the limitations that may exist with
respect to how such fees and charges are collected, expended and accounted.
Section 7.05.020. User Fees. These charges are meant to reasonably
approximate the cost to the District to provide a service to a person or company. These
would include, but not be limited to, charges for reviewing plans or inspecting a sewer,
or making copies of District documents. These charges may be pass - through costs of
District's engineer, inspector or surveyor. Annexation fees would also be such a user
fee. This may also include the cost of making copies, as limited by the California Public
Records Act. These charges are always to be based on estimated costs to the District,
including, where appropriate, reasonable amounts of overhead. In appropriate cases
an estimate shall be made, and the person /company for whom the service is to be
provided shall be required to make a deposit of the estimated costs. The person
providing the service shall bill against the deposit, and a detailed accounting shall be
made. Additional sums may need to be paid or a refund may be appropriate. In other
cases where the tasks are reasonably routine, a per - service charge shall be the sole
amount collected but shall be based on time and motion estimates of the average
charge for the service. These fees are generally set forth in Chapter 7.02 of this Code.
Section 7.05030. Connection Fees. Generally, connection fees would be
charged in lieu of the developer or owner installing a sewer facility. Pursuant to
statutory and case law, these fees are the direct cost of installing the sewer. The
District's connection permit fee, by contrast, is a fee to cover the cost of issuing the
permit.
Section 7.05.040. Fixture Fees. Fixture fees are capacity charges for public
facilities in existence at the time a charge is imposed or charges for new public facilities
to be acquired or constructed in the future that are of proportional benefit to the person
or property being charged, including supply or capacity contracts for rights or
entitlements, real property interests, and entitlements and other rights of the local
agency involving capital expense relating to its use of existing or new public facilities.
The following applies to those fees:
(a) Pur ose. Fixture fees shall be used for the purposes identified in the
engineer's report that establishes the facilities that are to be constructed or rehabilitated
to serve the development upon which the fees are imposed. Those facilities shall either
be directly related to the development or indirectly related in which case the fixture fee
shall only pay a fair portion of the charges.
(b) Facilities. The facilities for which the fees are collected shall be identified
in an engineer's report. Those facilities should, but need not be, included in the
District's Capital Improvement Plan.
(c) Reasonable Relationship between Development and Fee. The engineer's
report shall demonstrate a reasonable relationship between the type of development
and the use of the fee.
(d) Reasonable Relationship between Facility and Type of Development for
which Fee Imposed. The engineer's report shall demonstrate a reasonable relationship
between the type of development and the facility being proposed.
(e) Reasonable Relationship between Amount of Fee and the Cost of the
Facility or Portion of the Facility. In any action imposing a fee on a development, the
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District shall be able to justify the amount of the fee and the cost of the facility or portion
of the facility attributable to the development.
(f) Deposit. Upon payment of the fees, the money shall be deposited in a
separate capital facilities account maintained in accordance with Government Code
Section 66013(d). For each such separate account, the District shall, within one
hundred eight (180) days of the close of the fiscal year, make available to the public the
following information:
(1) A description of the charges deposited in the fund.
(2) The beginning and ending balance of the fund and the interest earned
from investment of moneys in the fund.
(3) The amount of charges collected in that fiscal year.
(4) An identification of all of the following:
(A) Each public improvement on which charges were expended and the
amount of the expenditure for each improvement, including the percentage of the total
cost of the public improvement that was funded with those charges if more than one
source of funding was used.
(6) Each public improvement on which charges were expended that was
completed during that fiscal year.
(C) Each public improvement that is anticipated to be undertaken in the
following fiscal year.
(5) A description of each interfund transfer or loan made from the capital
facilities fund. The information provided, in the case of an interfund transfer, shall
identify the public improvements on which the transferred moneys are, or will be,
expended. The information, in the case of an interfund loan, shall include the date on
which the loan will be repaid, and the rate of interest that the fund will receive on the
loan.
Section 7.05.050. Definitions. For the purpose of this chapter, certain words
and terms are defined as follows:
(a) Fixture Fee Charges. Are those District charges paid by or on behalf of
the property owner for the construction of public improvements that will benefit a
development and that are justified by an engineering and financial analysis in
accordance with Government Code Section 66013 or successor statute.
(b) Connection Manhole. Shall mean a manhole constructed in the main line
of a District sewer not as part of the original construction, or a manhole built adjacent
thereto, for the purpose of permitting sewage to flow into a District sewer.
(c) District Sewerage Facility. Shall mean any property belonging to District
used in the transportation or disposal of sewage or industrial waste.
(d) Domestic Sewage. Shall mean the waterborne wastes derived from the
ordinary living processes which are of such volume and character as to permit
satisfactory disposal into a public sewer.
(e) Dwelling Unit. A dwelling unit shall consist of one or more rooms in any
building designed for occupancy by one family and containing one kitchen unit.
(f) Industrial Waste. Shall mean any and all liquid or solid waste substance,
not sewage, from any producing, manufacturing or processing operation of whatever
nature.
(g) Industrial Waste Treatment Plant or Facility. Shall mean any works or
device for the treatment of industrial waste prior to its discharge into the District
sewerage facilities.
(h) Plumbing Fixture Unit. A plumbing fixture unit as used in this ordinance is
defined as being the same as set forth in the California Plumbing Code, a copy of which
is one file in the office of the Clerk of the District. All roughing -in for future fixtures will
be counted as fixture units to set charges.
(i) Pretreatment. Shall mean treatment prior to discharge into a District
sewerage facility by means of an industrial waste treatment plant or facility.
6) Public Corl2oration. Shall mean any city, district or other public agency
duly authorized under the laws of the State of California.
(k) Sewerage Facilities. Shall mean any facilities used in the collection,
transportation, treatment or disposal of sewage and industrial waste.
(1) Sewer Manholes. Shall mean those manholes constructed as a part of
the District's sewer system.
Section 7.05.060. Permit Regulations.
(a) Requirements. No person or public corporation shall connect to, use or
maintain a connection to the sewerage facilities of the District without a valid permit.
(b) Condition Precedent. No permit shall be valid unless the real property to
be sewered by the use of the permit shall be included within the boundaries of the
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District or is currently being annexed to the District or unless said property is subject to
or is being made subject to a service contract between real property owner and the
District.
(c) Permit. A sewer permit shall be comprised of two different components:
(1) a permit to connect to the District's system, and (2) a permit to use or discharge into
the system.
(1) Permit to Connect. A connection permit for the purpose of authorizing
connection to a District sewerage facilities in accordance with District's regulations and
under conditions set forth in said permit is required before connection will be authorized.
(2) Permit to Use. The use permit will prescribe requirements as to a
connection manhole, an industrial waste treatment plant or facility, or pretreatment, all
to insure compliance with the District regulations as to characteristics, quality and
quantity of sewage and industrial waste. Such requirements should be set forth in the
permit.
(3) Surcharges for Use Permit. The District hereby establishes the quantity of
twenty thousand (20,000) cubic feet of sewage or industrial waste per month per acre of
real property served as the maximum allowable effluent to be discharged into the
District's sewerage facilities without the payment of surcharges. Each user discharging
more than twenty thousand (20,000) cubic feet of sewage or industrial waste per month
per acre shall be charged Twelve Dollars ($12.00) per one thousand (1,000) cubic feet
or any portion thereof in excess of the twenty thousand (20,000) cubic feet maximum.
Measurements may be required by the permittee, or permittee's effluent may be
considered equivalent to the water (excepting irrigation water) purchased by permittee.
Permittee upon demand shall provide District with his or its water usage records and
District shall bill excess users of the system monthly based upon the charges set forth
herein. In addition to said charges, users may also be charged fees for increased
development in accordance with Chapter 7.06.
(d) Suspension or Revocation of Use Permit. The permit to use may be
suspended or revoked if a permittee is acting in violation of any provision of the permit
or of the ordinances, rules or regulations of the District thirty (30) days after receiving a
formal written notice of such violation and a demand for correction thereof from the
District. Such formal written notice shall be given only upon recommendation of the
Manager. Appropriate due process shall be provided before such actions are taken,
and the Board of Directors shall provide for a hearing if requested in a timely manner.
. (e) Violation. For each day or part of a day a permittee whose permit has
been suspended or revoked continues to discharge sewage or industrial waste into a
District sewerage facility in violation of the permit or of the ordinances, rules or
regulations of the District, he or it shall be charged as a civil penalty the sum equal to
ten (10) percent of the fixture fee charges per day. No formal written notice of violation
shall be authorized unless the General Manager of the District has first given an
informal written notice of violation to the subject permittee at least thirty (30) days in
advance of action of the Board of Directors. The same noticing procedure set forth
hereinabove shall apply for intermittent or sporadic violators and in lieu of a suspension
of permit, the Board of Directors may impose a civil fine in accordance with the District's
administrative citation provisions per day or any part of a day for intermittent violations.
The amount of the fine may be directly related to increased handling costs occasioned,
to the District by reason of such violations and /or damage caused to the sewerage
facilities of this District by such violations. In such cases the formal written notice of
violation shall set forth the fine to be imposed for violations after the thirty (30) day
correction period.
(f) Criminal Penalty. Any person, firm or corporation that connects or
discharges to District's sewerage system without a valid connection permit or other legal
right shall also be guilty of a misdemeanor and punishable as provided in Chapter
1.02.010 of this Code for each day's violation.
(g) Procedure to Acquire Permit. An applicant for a connection permit or his
agent shall make application on a form furnished by the District. The permit application
shall be supplemented by such plans, specifications or other information considered
pertinent in the judgment of the General Manager or District Engineer of.the District.
The permit fee and charges as hereinafter described shall be paid to the District at the
time the permit application is filed.
(h) Disposition of Charges. All charges established under this Article, when
collected, shall be deposited in the appropriate fund and accounted for in accordance
with the law.
(i) Insurance. Applications for a connection permit shall be accompanied by
proof of insurance of at least One Million Dollars ($1,000,000.00) for commercial
general liability, with underground coverage, and any automotive coverage. Applicants
shall also provide proof of workers compensation coverage. The commercial general
liability coverage shall name the District and its officers, agents and employees as
additional insureds and District reserves the right to require an endorsement naming
District as an additional insured. Such coverage must provide that it is not to be
cancelled except upon thirty (30) days notice to District. District also reserves the right
to require that the insurance company providing the commercial general liability policy
has a Best Key Guide rating of at least A -:VII and is an admitted carrier in the State of
California. Contractors performing work pursuant to a contract with the District shall
comply with the insurance requirements of the contract documents.
Q) Bonds. For any sewer work that will be accepted as part of District's
system, a performance bond and a labor and materials bond shall be required to be
maintained on District's forms as a condition of permit issuance.
Gl
Section 7.05.070. Permit Charges. Before any connection permit shall be
issued, the applicant shall pay to the District or its agent the charges specified in the
District resolution establishing fixture fees:
(a) When Charge Is to Be Paid. Payment of connection permit charges shall
be required at the time of the issuance of the connection permit, and no connection
shall be made until said permit has issued showing compliance with District regulations
and specifications. For that portion of the District within the City of Newport Beach and
within the unincorporated area of the County of Orange, said fee shall nevertheless be
paid through the offices of the Costa Mesa Sanitary District, 628 West 19th Street,
Costa Mesa, California.
(b) Schedule of Charges. A schedule of charges specified herein will be on
file in the office of the Clerk of the District and in the office of the Costa Mesa Sanitary
District.
(c) Interpretation of Permit Regulations. If the factual situations presented do
not follow precisely within the rules herein promulgated in this Article, the Board of
Directors shall interpret them in a reasonable manner and consistent with the intent of
this Chapter. In making such interpretations, the Board shall be guided by the policy of
the District to base fees and charges in accordance with the benefits and uses supplied
by the District. Those receiving the greatest benefit and most use of the facilities
provided by the District shall proportionately bear more of the costs and expenses of the
District.
Section 7.05.080. Penalties and Surcharges for Violations. Permits
Subsequently Obtained. Any person or public corporation connecting to a District
sewerage facility or connecting to a sewerage facility which discharges into a District
sewerage facility without first having obtained a permit as herein provided shall be
charged double the amount hereinabove described for his or its permit.
Section 7.05.090. Funds. All of the monies collected in this Chapter shall be
deposited, used and accounted for in accordance with the law by which those monies
were collected.
Section 7.05.100. Other Agency Fees. In addition to those fees provided
elsewhere in this Code, there shall be established and collected the following fees, the
amount of which shall be determined by the agency for which they are collected:
(a) Any fee collected for and remitted to the Orange County Sanitation District.
(b) State Board of Equalization annexation filing fees collected for and remitted to
that agency.
(c) County Surveyor for the County of Orange fee collected for and remitted to
that agency for annexation plan check.
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(d) Fees collected and remitted to Orange County Local Agency Formation
Commission.
(e) Any other fee required to be collected and. remitted to any other governmental
agency as a condition to annexation or use of said governmental agency's facilities. (Ord.
20, 1989)
Section 7.05.110. Fee Changes. All of the fees established by this Ordinance
may be increased, decreased, or abolished, or otherwise modified at any time by
resolution duly adopted by the Board of Directors of the District and said resolution shall
have the same force and effect when adopted as though this Ordinance has been
amended to provide said changes. (Ord. 20, 1989)
Section 7.05.120. Annexation Requirements. (a) When Deemed Annexed.
Except as hereinafter provided, no sanitary sewer service, including residential trash
disposal service, shall be provided to any applicant for service unless and until said
applicant shall have applied for and been approved for annexation to the District. Approval
shall be deemed complete when approved by the Local Agency Formation Commission.
(b) Exceptions: Sanitary sewer service, and trash collection, may be provided by
contract to applicants for service without annexation to the District, however contracts for
service may be entered into by the District only on those parcels lying in County territory or
within the geographical limits of an incorporated city other than the City of Costa Mesa and
after obtaining LAFCO's prior approval if required by state law. All parcels lying within the
geographical limits of the City of Costa Mesa will be served only after annexation to the
District as heretofore set forth. (Ord. 20, 1989)
Section 7.05.130. Affordable Housing Priority. (a) In accordance with
Government Code Section 65589.7 or any successor statute, the District shall ensure
that developments that contain an affordable housing component shall be provided with
a sewer connection if the applicant complies with all District laws and regulations unless
the Board makes findings that there is insufficient collection capacity, that the District is
under an order that no further connections be allowed, or unless the applicant fails to
comply with District laws or to enter into an agreement with District to comply with such
laws. District shall review the relevant housing elements at least every five years to
determine that sufficient collection capacity exists.
(b) State law shall be referred to for all definitions and to more fully describe
District's obligations under said law. (Ord. 56, 2006)
Section 7.05.140. Enforcement. In addition to any other remedies that may
exist, the provisions of this Ordinance may be enforced by civil action at law and /or by
injunction. In this connection these regulations shall be construed as a contract by the
Costa Mesa Sanitary District and each permittee."
Section 2. Should any part, clause or section of this Ordinance be declared by any Court
of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, the remaining provisions of this Ordinance shall
nevertheless be and remain in full force and effect and the Board of Directors of the Costa
Mesa Sanitary District of Orange County, California, hereby declares that each and every
section, clause, provision or part of this Ordinance would have been adopted and made a
part of this Ordinance without the adoption of any portion thereof and that the invalidity of
any part or provision hereof shall not in any way affect the validity or enforcement of the
remaining provisions of this Ordinance that may stand on their own.
Section 3. Pursuant to Health and Safety Code Sections 6490 and 6491.3, the Clerk shall
cause this ordinance or a summary thereof to be published in a newspaper of general
circulation printed and published in the District according to law.
PASSED and ADOPTED this day of 2010.
Secre ry
►!1
President
STATE OF CALIFORNIA)
COUNTY OF ORANGE ) SS
CITY OF COSTA MESA )
I, JOAN REVAK, Clerk of the Costa Mesa Sanitary District, hereby certify that the
above and foregoing Ordinance No. 76 was duly and regularly passed and adopted by
said Board of Directors at a regular meeting thereof, held on the 27th day of May 2010
by the following vote:
AYES: Arlene Schafer, Robert Ooten, Gary Monahan, James Ferryman,
NOES: Arthur Perry
ABSENT:
ABSTAIN:
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the seal of
the Costa Mesa Sanitary District, this 27th day of May 2010.
Clerk of to Costa M.es�t Sanitary District
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RESOLUTION NO. 2010 -782
A RESOLUTION OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
OF THE COSTA MESA SANITARY DISTRICT
ORDERING THAT PUBLICATION OF ORDINANCE
NO. 76 REVISING THE CHARGES COLLECTED BY
THE DISTRICT AND ESTABLISHING THAT
FIXTURE FEES ARE CAPACITY CHARGES AND
MAKING RELATED CLARIFYING CHANGES HAS
BEEN PUBLISHED
WHEREAS, the Board of Directors on May 27, 2010 adopted Ordinance No. 76
Revising the Charges Collected by the District and Establishing that Fixture Fees are
Capacity Charges and Making Related Clarifying Changes; and
WHEREAS, that Ordinance was published in the Newport Beach /Costa Mesa
Daily Pilot on June 4, 2010 and
WHEREAS, Health and Safety Code Section 6490 provides that an order of the
Board that publication has occurred is conclusive evidence that publication has properly
been made;
NOW, THEREFORE, the Board of Directors does hereby resolve:
That it is hereby ordered and decreed that publication of Ordinance No. 76 revising
the Operations Code by amending "Chapter 7.05" has occurred.
PASSED and ADOPTED on this 21" day of June 2010.
Secretary, Costa h✓les Sa:utary District President, Costa Mesa Sa -Mary District
Board of Directors Board of Directors
.i ^y-.
A
STATE OF CALIFORNIA )
COUNTY OF ORANGE ) SS
CITY OF COSTA MESA )
I, Joan Revak, Clerk of the Costa Mesa Sanitary District, hereby certify that the
above and foregoing Resolution No. 2010 -782 duly and regularly passed and adopted by
said Board of Directors at a regular meeting thereof held on the 21 st day of June 2010.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the seal of the
Costa Mesa Sanitary District, this 214 day of 2010.
Clerk of . Cost?,-'Mesa Sanitary District