The City Council of the city finds, determines and declares that:
A. Policy PSCU-P-34 of the General Plan requires the city work with the Visalia Unified School District to coordinate land use and development with school location and site design to ensure that adequate facilities are available and integrated with neighborhoods;
B. The school district has presented information to the city establishing that existing school facilities are overcrowded and that further growth and development in the city will have a significant adverse impact o the capacity of the school system;
C. The school district has presented information to the city that the fee, charge, dedication or other requirement the district is authorized to levy against a development project pursuant to Government Code Sections 53080 and 65995 is insufficient to adequately fund the construction of new school facilities to meet the needs of growth in the community;
D. The school district has presented information to the city that it does not have the financial or other resources available to fund new school facilities;
E. While it is also the State of California's responsibility to fund the construction of new school facilities to meet the needs of growth, the state has not provided the financial or other resources necessary to meet the growing demand for new school facilities;
F. Pursuant to Education Code Section 17718.5(a) the State Board of Education is to encourage school districts to utilize alternative methods to fund school facilities;
G. Education Code Section 17717.7 encourages the use of alternative funding sources by creating a six-tiered priority list for qualifying for state funding that effectively encourages school districts to request only a maximum of fifty (50) percent of total construction costs;
H. The school district must expand its classroom facilities in order to meet the needs of a growing community without decreasing the current level of education in order to promote and protect the public health, safety and welfare.
I. The imposition of an environmental impact mitigation fee is a preferred method of ensuring that new development bears a proportionate share of the cost of capital facilities necessary to accommodate the student population generated by such development and thereby promotes and protect the public health, safety and welfare.
J. The fees established by Section 16.48.070 are derived from, are based upon, and do not exceed the costs of providing additional school facilities necessitated by new development for which the fees are levied.
K. The report entitled "Environmental Impact Mitigation – School Overcrowding – Fee Justification Report", dated May 18, 1992, sets forth a reasonable methodology and analysis for determination of the impact on new development on the need for and cost of additional school facilities within the school district;
L. The adoption of this chapter is consistent with the General Plan of the city. (Ord. 2017-01 (part), 2017)