A.    The city council finds that future development within the cities of Grass Valley and Nevada City and within the unincorporated portions of western Nevada County to the year 2020 will result in traffic volumes in excess of capacity on the regional system of streets, arterials, and highways now existing.

    B.    The city council finds that failure to expand the capacity of the existing circulation system will cause unacceptable levels of congestion on the streets and arterials of the regional transportation system.

    C.    The city council further finds and declares that in the absence of this chapter imposing a fair-share traffic fee upon new development, existing and future sources of revenue are inadequate to fund substantial portions of the regional transportation system improvements needed to avoid unacceptable levels of congestion and related adverse impacts.

    D.    The city council finds that exactions from development will construct only a portion of the local and regional facilities and that the adoption of this regional transportation mitigation fee chapter will raise necessary additional revenues needed to construct the improvements to accommodate traffic that will be generated by development of land within cities of Grass Valley and Nevada City and within the unincorporated portions of western Nevada County.

    E.    The city council also finds that the Nevada County Regional Transportation Mitigation Fee Report, December 7, 2000 has determined the extent to which the new development of land will generate traffic volumes impacting the regional transportation system and that this chapter establishes a fair and equitable method for distributing the costs of transportation improvements necessary to accommodate the traffic volumes generated by such development.

    F.    The city council further finds that the regional transportation improvements and the regional transportation mitigation fee established by this chapter are based on the findings of the Nevada County regional transportation mitigation fee report, December 7, 2000, whose policy-committee members represented the county of Nevada, the city of Grass Valley and the city of Nevada City. This report has established that growth will affect the entire regional transportation system and therefore the area of impact for future development is Western Nevada County as defined in this chapter. The study made the following additional findings:

    1.    Population growth will cause levels of service E and F (as defined in the Transportation Research Board Highway Capacity Manual, Special Report 209, 3rd Edition) on existing streets and arterials.

    2.    The Nevada County Regional Transportation Mitigation Fee Report, December 7,2000 modeled and evaluated the effect of projected growth on all major streets and highways in the report area and found that without improvements the transportation system would experience unacceptable levels of congestion. Further, the report showed that the recommended transportation improvements would accommodate the traffic anticipated at the desired level of service “D”.

    3.    Existing and future sources of public revenues are insufficient to fund all the needed transportation improvements.

    4.    The revenues generated by this regional transportation mitigation fee will provide additional funds necessary to construct the transportation improvements and provide the additional capacity needed to accommodate the traffic generated by the development of land in Western Nevada County.

    5.    The regional transportation mitigation fee is a fair and equitable method of distributing the cost of transportation improvements among the developments which will generate the increased traffic.

    G.    The city council adopts all findings stated herein above and incorporates by reference all findings contained in the following reports/studies, which are also incorporated herein by reference and made a part of this chapter as though fully set forth herein:.

    •    Nevada County Regional Transportation Mitigation Fee Report, December 7, 2000;

    •    Regional Transportation Mitigation Fee Administrative Handbook;

    •    Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), 6th Edition, incorporated by reference, with the exception as referenced in this chapter, Section 3.46.020 F. Copies of the above cited reports/studies shall be available for public inspection during normal business hours in the office of the city clerk. (Ord. 591 (part), 2001)