18 ATTACHMENT 09 - Laserfiche WebLink

Joint City of Pleasanton and Pleasanton Unified School District Liaison Committee December 12,2016 Page 4 Finally, SB 50 provides that the capped fee amounts are also the exclusive method of mitigating school impacts for the purposes of the California Environmental Quality Act("CEQA"). (Gov. Code, § 65996(b).) C. California Building Industry Association ("CBL4') v. State Allocation Board In May of this year, for the first time,the State Allocation Board("Board")made a finding that state funds for new school construction are no longer available,and that the Board is no longer approving apportionments for new construction due to the lack of funds. Therefore,pursuant to provisions of SB 50(discussed above), the Board authorized the imposition of Level Ill fees for eligible school districts. The California Building Industry Association("CBIA")then brought a lawsuit against the Board, in an attempt to enjoin the Board from authorizing Level III fees. (California Building Industry Association v. State Allocation Board(Sacramento Superior Court Case No. 34-2016-80002356).) In the lawsuit, CBIA alleged that the Board incorrectly found that funds for new school construction are no longer available, pointing to other existing sources of school facility financing(including state funds dedicated to seismic improvements).4 The trial court rejected CBIA arguments,and upheld the findings of the Board. The CBIA filed an appeal of the trial court's decision,which was denied by the Third District Court of Appeal on October 28,2016. (Case No. C082812.)5 HI. SCHOOL FACILITIES AND CEQA As mentioned above, SB 50 amended Government Code section 65996 to provide in relevant part that the capped fee amounts"shall be the exclusive methods for considering and mitigating impacts on school facilities that occur or might occur as a result of any legislative or adjudicative act. . . involving [the approval of the] development of real property . . . ."(Gov. Code, § 65996(a).) SB 50 also added the following language to Government Code section 65996: (b) The provisions of this chapter are hereby deemed to provide full and complete school facilities mitigation and, notwithstanding[Government Code] Section 65858 ,or [CEQA], or any other provision of state or local law,a state or local agency may not deny or refuse to approve [the] development of real property . . . on the basis that school facilities are inadequate . (c) For purposes of this section, `school facilities' means any school-related consideration relating to a school district's ability to accommodate enrollment. The City of Dublin filed an amicus curiae("friends of the court")brief on behalf of the Board. ' Notwithstanding this litigation,given the approval of the 9 billion dollar state school bond measure on the November 2016 ballot(Proposition 51),Level III fees will likely no longer be authorized once the Board begins to approve and fund apportionments.