County of Orange v. BARRATT AMERICAN, INC.

INTRODUCTION

The Mitigation Fee Act (Gov. Code, § 66000 et seq.) governs fees charged by local agencies for development projects, water or sewer connections, and zoning and building permits, and provides remedies when the' fees are excessive. Such fees cannot exceed the “estimated reasonable cost of providing the service for which the fee is charged,” unless the excessive fee is approved by a two-thirds vote of the electorate. (§ 66014, subd. (a).) If an excessive fee is not so approved, and “the fees or service charges create revenues in excess of actual cost, those revenues shall be used to reduce the fee or service charge creating the excess.” (§ 66016, subd. (a).)

When a county is the local agency imposing fees, its board of supervisors is given the authority “to increase or decrease the fee or charge, that is otherwise authorized to be levied by another provision of law, in the amount reasonably necessary to recover the cost of providing any product or service or the cost of enforcing any regulation for which the fee or charge is levied. . . . Indirect costs that may be reflected in the cost of providing any product or service or the cost of enforcing any…