Community Benefit Payments
How would you spend a $1 million gift?
Community Benefit Payments are sizable contributions made by developers to the City of Dublin (and other cities) in addition to the standard building and impact fees required by new development. These types of payments are usually made by developers to compensate Dublin for making exceptions to the General or Specific plan guidelines, city ordinances, and/or other design guidelines.
The City of Dublin has received many Community Benefit Payments over the years with at least a few more in the pipeline. Here are just a few examples (please click on the image for a larger view of the table):
In some instances, the proceeds from Community Benefit Payments are designated for specific projects by the corresponding Development Agreements (e.g., the Schaefer Ranch South $1.5M total payment will be used to build future phases of the Dublin Historic Park). In other cases, the purpose of the Community Benefit Payment isn’t specified by the Development Agreement – so the proceeds flow directly into the General Fund (e.g., the Wallis Ranch $1M payment).
This “flexible use” characteristic is one of the key distinctions between impact fees and Community Benefit Payments. While impact fees must be used to provide infrastructure improvements (e.g., schools, parks, streets) in an area where development occurs, Community Benefit Payments can be used in whichever manner the Dublin City Council sees fit.
As noted above, the combined $2M Wallis Ranch and Positano Community Benefit Payments will be deposited into the City of Dublin General Fund. Please contact our Mayor and City Councilmembers if you have suggestions for how these payments can be utilized.
10:49 AM on November 24th, 2008
Why is it that west Dublin projects with Community Benefit payments see the direct benefit of their money (Historic Park) and east Dublin projects see their funds going to the city General Fund?
The city complains that they don’t have the funds to complete Emerald Glen on time (it has been EIGHT YEARS since that park opened and still nowhere done) and yet they diverted $2MM from Dublin Ranch for the library!!!!
Can we repeal these horrible decisions which simply prove that the west Dublin elected officials see east Dublin as a way to fund their pet projects?
They should at least be fair and designate east Dublin funds go to east Dublin.
4:18 PM on November 24th, 2008
fees generated in the east stay in the east for projects. the city is currently in the process of final design on the last phase of emerald glen park and has all the money needed to build it out with the exception of enclosing the rec pool which was not in the original plan but added on by the council. if people would spend more time finding out how projects in the east and west were developed comments such as the one above would be based on facts not conjecture. the west projects come from a different pot of money. why not go on the city web site and check it out for yourself.
7:32 AM on November 25th, 2008
Hi Anonymous from November 24, 2008 3:18 PM (a.k.a. Kasie / Janet),
Would you kindly point us to specific URLs on the city website where laypeople like my husband and me can easily look up the information so nicely summarized here?
10:07 AM on November 25th, 2008
dear anonymous – i am not kasie nor janet. i am a long term resident who happened upon this website not long ago. i was once actively involved in the city and voted (as a resident) to develop east dublin. the voters approved this development with one of many conditions… the east pay for itself through fees it generates from development. check out the eastern dublin specific plan. you can see for yourself.
before you start posting aka names that are not true you should quit hiding behind anonymous yourself. i remain anonymous simply because those who choose to support the concept of one thriving city and projects on both sides of town tend to get verbally abused on this website. if you don’t support the few east dublin residents who use this site and their opinions for the city ( oh wait the city of east dublin) then you are ridiculed. not worth it. the only reason i occasionally log on is to see how far fetched and off target the facts and comments are and then i shake my head in disbelief or occasionally respond hoping that real facts will win out.
lastly, has it ever occurred to you to contact your elected officials yourself to ask questions and get real answers? try it one time. i have found they respond and are quite knowledgeable.
10:29 AM on November 25th, 2008
And yet you still failed to provide URLs to these resources you keep referring to.
11:47 AM on November 25th, 2008
link to contact your electeds:
http://www.ci.dublin.ca.us/DepartmentSub.cfm?PL=gov&SL=maycc
eastern dublin specific plan:
http://www.ci.dublin.ca.us/search.php?zoom_query=eastern+dublin+specific+plan
hint – there's a search tool on the city web page… useful when looking for specific items. also the document is not written in layman's terms but in planning terms. hope you can understand it.
11:55 AM on November 25th, 2008
p.s. forgot to state – the city web page and city staff are great resources for information. maybe you should start logging onto that website for information or calling city hall. at least it’s accurate, factual and available without bias. here’s the url if you can’t find it yourself:
http://www.ci.dublin.ca.us/
oh yeah – you can find the search link in the bottom left corner.
12:19 PM on November 25th, 2008
This rude person must be Janet’s family or friend speaking for her. So tough yet still anonymous like everyone else.
12:21 PM on November 25th, 2008
I will bet that the concerns and questions raised by the comments above are also on many readers’ minds. Wouldn’t it be a more effective use of their time, if our elected city officials provide a definitive answer here once and for all?
Our elected city officials should follow the example set by Mr. John Ledhal from the School Board and engage the readers directly. I have the utmost respect for him, because he is doing his best to communicate his point of view on a forum that is not always friendly to him. If that is not character, I don’t know what is.
Finally, I would like to add that not all new arrivals live on the East side. My wife and I live close to the Shannon Community Center with our 11-month-old baby girl, and we love it here! We wouldn’t have moved to Dublin if it weren’t for this blog. I agree the hateful and snide comments from both sides of town need to stop. I don’t see how any of that negativity is good for Dublin as a whole.
11:53 PM on December 20th, 2008
I bet anonymous voted to develop east Dublin so they could then develop the loophole called “community benefit” payments. Just one way for the city to soak developer fees generated in the east to their west side pet projects.
Community benefit payments from east side projects should stay in east side projects.