Meyers v. County of Calaveras
Plaintiffs Guy B. Meyers and Roy Hifai own a 12-acre parcel of real property in Calaveras County that they intend to develop for residential and use. Plaintiffs appeal from a judgment entered after commercial the trial court rejected their challenge to the validity of Ordinance No. 2777, which was adopted by the Board of Supervisors of Calaveras County (County) in February 2004. Ordinance No. 2777 created a Road Impact Mitigation fee (RIM fee) program that imposes a fee on new developments. Plaintiffs argue that (1) the inclusion of Pool Station Road in the RIM fee program violated the Mitigation Fee Act (the Act) (Gov. Code, 66000, et seq.)[1] because traffic on the road is currently minimal and anticipated increases in usage due to new development are insufficiently demonstrated by the evidence presented to the Board of Supervisors, and (2) the procedure in Ordinance No. 2777 whereby a developer may apply for a waiver of the RIM fee violates section 66001 by making the developer shoulder the burden of proving the reasonableness of the fee. Court shall affirm. The trial court did not err in concluding that the County reasonably found Pool Station Road to meet all three prerequisites for inclusion in the RIM fee program. Court also agree with the trial court that Ordinance No. 2777 does not impermissibly shift the burden of establishing a reasonable relationship between the projects to be funded by the program and the new developments from which the fee is collected. Requiring developers to bear the burden of proving entitlement to a fee waiver does not violate the Act.
Comments on Meyers v. County of Calaveras