Long Beach : Developer Fees Proposed to Help With Traffic Projects

Commercial and residential developers would pay for about half of the more than $200 million in traffic improvement projects needed in Long Beach over the next 20 years under a proposal unveiled this week.

An advisory committee appointed by the city manager is recommending that the city adopt development fees that would raise a total of $101.4 million over the next two decades. Most of the fees would be imposed on new commercial and residential development, although business license fees would also be increased 16%, raising another $1 million a year, and an annual fee would be imposed on downtown commercial space constructed since 1975.

Under the proposal, which must be approved by the City Council, fees would vary according to the type of development and its location. For instance, developers would pay a one-time fee of $3 a square foot for new downtown office space, $1,125 per hotel room constructed downtown, and $2 per square foot of office space built outside of downtown. A $950 per unit fee would be imposed on residential development throughout the city.

Long in planning, the fees are intended to force developers to help finance road and traffic improvements that will have to be built to handle the extra traffic generated by their projects. Local traffic studies have predicted that the city will need $232 million worth of road projects over the next two decades to keep pace with growth. The advisory committee is proposing that the city--using state, county and local redevelopment funds--pay for $105.7 million of the improvements.

To determine what share of the traffic costs developers should shoulder, the committee turned to a computer model to project traffic increases associated with anticipated development in Long Beach.