A. The Land Use Element of the Larkspur General Plan specifies the permitted uses of land within the City and places limits on the intensity and density of such use.

B. The City Council has examined the relationship between the land uses and densities permitted under the General Plan and the Downtown Specific Plan. Based upon this examination, the City Council has identified trends in growth and development which enable the City Council to project, with substantial certainty, the magnitude and extent of future development based upon the City’s General Plan and Downtown Specific Plan.

C. The City Council also has examined the extent to which different land uses generate vehicle trips. The City Council, in evaluating these trip generation rates, has taken into consideration, among other things, the General Plan Technical Studies, the City-wide Traffic Study, and various reports and memorandums by staff and consultants regarding trip generation rates. The City Council finds that these trip generation rates represent a reasonable estimate of the actual trip generation rates for these land use categories.

D. The City has identified certain major street and interchange improvements, transit way projects and other traffic-related improvements which are necessary or appropriate to accommodate the new development described in the City’s General Plan. The Larkspur General Plan and the City-wide Traffic Study indicate that build-out of the development permitted under the General Plan will result in unacceptable levels of service at many of the key intersections identified in the report. The City Council finds that this level of congestion will have adverse effects throughout the City and that implementation of the Transportation Element will substantially reduce these adverse effects.

E. Full implementation of the Transportation Element will require the construction of major improvements to the existing City-wide transportation system. The City Council has, after review of all relevant information, determined the estimated reasonable cost of those improvements and estimated funds available to make such improvements, as well as the extent to which funding is inadequate to make the necessary improvements.

F. The City Council, in determining the extent to which funds are available to make transportation improvements, has evaluated present and future sources of federal, state and county funding, City revenues which are earmarked for transportation improvements, and the extent to which committed projects are required to construct or fund transportation improvements that will assist in the implementation of the Transportation Element. The City is committed to actively pursuing all available funding sources for transportation improvements, in cooperation with interested members of the development community.

G. Although the traffic volume generated by an individual development project may not be, in and of itself, sufficient to overload the existing City-wide transportation system, the cumulative impact of all new development permitted under the City’s General Plan (including development currently approved or submitted for approval) will result in unacceptable levels of congestion. Implementation of the Transportation Element will result in a significant reduction in the level of traffic congestion generated by new development. It is the policy of the City, as set forth in the Transportation Element, that new development pay for the cost of the improvements to the City-wide transportation system which are identified in the Transportation Element and the City-wide Traffic Study and are necessary to accommodate the traffic volumes generated by new development. For these reasons, a fair and equitable method of securing some of the revenues necessary to construct the required transportation improvements is to impose a traffic impact fee based on the extent to which new development generates additional traffic volumes.

H. The transportation improvements will be constructed or implemented with funds generated by this chapter and will significantly benefit the contributor in that the adverse impacts, such as noise, air pollution, delay, accidents, increased fuel consumption, harm to the local economy, and inconveniences caused by traffic congestion will be substantially mitigated. The inability or failure to reduce the adverse impacts caused by traffic congestion in all parts of the City will have adverse effects throughout the City.

I. The City Council further finds that all portions of the existing local street system, except as noted below, currently operate at acceptable service levels. The funds collected under this chapter shall be exclusively used to mitigate the impacts of the trips generated by new development within the City. The following intersections have been identified as currently operating below acceptable service levels and in accord with the policies of the General Plan will not be improved in order to resolve the existing congestion problems.

J. The City Council further finds that the traffic fees to be charged pursuant to this chapter do not exceed the estimated reasonable cost of implementing the Transportation Element, that implementation of the Transportation Element is necessary to reduce the traffic congestion which will be created by new development, and that the method of allocation adopted by this chapter which is based upon the trip generation rates for the land uses permitted under the City’s General Plan assures that the fee applicable to a particular development bears a fair and reasonable relationship to each such development’s burden on, and benefit from, the City-wide transportation improvements to be funded by this chapter.

K. Periodic review, and possible revision, of the resolutions adopted by the City Council pursuant to this chapter will allow for the adjustment of the fees to be paid under this chapter to ensure that those fees are fair and equitable and that the traffic fees imposed pursuant to this chapter continue to reflect the reasonable cost of implementing the Transportation Element. (Ord. 1030 § 2(12), 2018; Ord. 840 § 1 (part), 1992)