Park Impact Fees

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About Park Impact Fees

In order to implement the goals and objectives of the City of Redwood City’s (CITY) Park and Recreation Needs Assessment, and to mitigate park impacts caused by new residential and commercial development projects within the City, a mitigation fee for parks is necessary. The fee is needed to finance the park and recreation facilities necessary to serve new development projects and to assure that new development projects pay their fair share for these facilities.

The City did a Benchmark Study in 2016 to gauge the feasibility of increasing fees related to developments. The 2016  study concluded that development fees in Redwood City would still remain in the “middle of the pack” when compared to other Cities if the Parks fee was increased even by 100%.

The Parks, Recreation, and Community Services Department engaged a number of different studies, community surveys, consultants, and analyses as part of this process. Those documents are available below, along with a brief description of their purpose.

In the Spring of 2022, the Parks, Recreation and Community Services Department presented the Park Impact Fee Nexus Study and an updated Benchmark Study to the City Council. The City Council adopted fees went into effect July 22, 2022. There are credits/discounts available for these fees and are as follows:

• Affordable housing projects receive the following discounts-
  • Moderate Affordable Level Housing projects recieve a 50% reduction in fees.
  • Low, Very Low and Extremely Low Affordable Housing projects do not pay any Park Impact Fees
• Existing uses of the property are credited back at the same values listed below for the type of use that existed prior to redeveloping the property.

2025 Park Impact Fees

• Single Family Home- $47,414.00
• Multi Family Development- $40,710.80
• Office Space $7.86 per sqft
• Commercial Space $5.40 per sqft
• Industrial Space- $2.54 per sqft
• Hotels- $3,325.76 per room

Note, bedroom additions and ADU's are currently exempt from Park Impact Fees until April 1, 2027.  

Annual Reports

FY 2024 - 2025 Annual Report (link)
Annual AB 1600 Development Impact Fee Report. 

FY 2023 - 2024 Annual Report (link)
Annual AB 1600 Development Impact Fee Report. 

FY 2022 - 2023 Annual Report (link)
Annual AB 1600 Development Impact Fee Report.

FY 2024 - 2025 Park Impact Fee Project List (link)
Parks and Recreation Needs identified by the 2019 Park Needs Assesment Study with specific projects developed by the Parks, Recreation and Community Services Commision in March 2022.

Documents

2025 Parks Impact Fee Project List (download)
This document is the City’s up-to-date parks impact fee project list.

2016 Benchmark Study (download)
Benchmark the impacts of raising the Park Impact Fee from its current discounted rate to 100% of the original rate.

2018 Demographic & Trends Study (download)
Review the changing demographics of RWC and the current trends in Recreation amenities and services.

2018 Park and Facilities Needs Assessment Survey (download)
Includes 7 Stakeholder Surveys and a community-wide survey with online and onsite surveying.

2019 Park and Facilities Needs Assessment Final Report (download)
Used information gathered from the above documents and surveys plus analysis of current park distribution and amenities to formulate recommendations for meeting the needs of a growing population. (Includes 10min walkability analysis)

2020 Park Impact Fee Nexus Study and Technical Memo (download)
Provide the City of Redwood City (City) with the necessary technical documentation to support the adoption of an update to its existing Parks Impact Fee and Parkland In-Lieu Fee by calculating the maximum fee valuation.

2020 Benchmark Study (download)
Compare somewhat similar Cities and the full permit/impact fee cost related to 10 different standard development projects.

2022 Nexus Technical Memorandum (download)
This document is the updated Nexus Analysis for the Redwood City Parks Fee update, dated May 11, 2022. This document provides the justification for the proposed park impact fees..

2022 Recommended Park Impact Fees (download)

This document is the 2022 recommended park impact fees – updating residential park impact fees and new non-residential park impact fees.

2022 Updated Benchmark Study (download)
This document is the updated Redwood City Development Impact Fee Benchmark Report dated May 9, 2022

City Staff-Development Meeting (download)
Presentation used during the May 2021 Zoom Meetings