San Luis Obispo County has slightly raised its road impact fees, part of a required annual report, but folks on the North Coast probably don’t need to be concerned, as the anemic growth here has kept the County from collecting very much money, and in turn doing much work.
County Supervisors approved increasing the roads fees, paid by new development projects, by 1.9% after averaging inflationary increases over the past three years.
The County is divvied up into seven so-called “fee areas” — Avila (San Luis Bay), North Coast, San Miguel (North County), Nipomo (South County), Templeton, Los Osos (Estero), and State Route 227 (rural SLO), according to a report out of the Transportation Division of Public Works.
Under State Law (Assembly Bill 1600 and Gov. Code 66006(b)) and in turn County Ordinance 2379, the County adjusts the road fees every year for inflation, which is calculated using figures from the Engineering News-Record, which looks at engineering/construction cost increase from 20 cities scattered across the U.S.
These cost increases are calculated every year, and the County takes an average of the past three years to develop the current rate hike.
From 2023-2025 costs rose 1.79%, 1.51% and 2.39%, which when averaged gave the County the 1.90% increase that is in effect for 2026.
But road impact fees vary depending on the type of new development — i.e. commercial vs. residential, or single-family home vs. an apartment building — and the North Coast and Los Osos haven’t grown a lick, and so very little fees have been paid.
In Los Osos the fees are rising from $3,811 to $3,895 for residential developments, of which there were zero last year.
How much a particular development pays in road impact fees is based on “peak hour trips” and in Los Osos that means how much more traffic is likely to be using the roads.
According to the official Resolution passed by Supervisors: “The number of peak hour trips caused or generated by the residential use(s) and the number of peak hour trips caused or generated by the non-residential land uses shall be separately determined and then,
“The total road improvement fee for the new development shall be computed by multiplying the number of peak hour trips determined in subparagraph above for each land use by the appropriate road improvement fee for each land use and then summing the results.”
If a new house gets built in Los Osos, and it generates two peak hour trips, the builder would have to pay $7,790 in road impact fees.
But in 2025, there were no building permits issued that would trigger these impact fees, so the County collected nothing.
There is some fees money being held in reserve, according to the Resolution. As of July 1, 2024 — the start of the 2024-25 fiscal year — the County had $93,036 in reserves for this fee area. It added some $3,643 in interest payments, and spent $28, to bring the total roads fees being held for Los Osos to $96,652.
According to the report, “The Los Osos Circulation Study contains a list of recommended improvements for all modes of transportation in the community as well as an adopted Capital Improvement Program for funding by Road Improvement Fees and other sources.”
That’s a fairly long list of projects, numbering 60 with varying levels of costs and work needed.
Among the bigger projects on the list are: $1.1 million for drainage upgrades on LOVR from Palisades Avenue to Ravenna Avenue, with another $1.34M for the same work from Ravenna to Doris Avenue; $1.56M to realign intersections on Ramona Avenue from 4th Street to Ravenna; and $1.05M to widen South Bay Boulevard to four lanes from Santa Ysabel Avenue to the Urban/Rural reserve Line.
South Bay would also be widened to four lanes from El Moro Avenue to Nipomo Avenue at the cost of an additional $1.69M.
Right now, with so little money in the impact fees fund, the only thing on the County to-do list for Los Osos is to spend up to $2,000 on a traffic study.
While impact fees might be few and far between on the North Coast, the County is collecting lots of money from other unincorporated county towns. In FY 2024/25 it collected $1.57M and spent it on a variety of projects in places like Nipomo, Avila Beach and Templeton.
It should be noted that impact fees are not the sole source of funding the County has for road projects. Most of the road monies come out of gasoline taxes.
For example, the County is currently replacing the Los Osos Creek Bridge on South Bay Boulevard at a cost of about $24 million and none of that is being paid for with impact fees.
