“Applicant” means any person who files an application with the city for a building permit.

“Appropriation” or to “appropriate” means an action by the city to identify specific public facilities for which development fee funds may be utilized. Appropriation shall include, but shall not necessarily be limited to: inclusion of a public facility in the adopted city budget, capital improvements program; or infrastructure improvements plan, execution of a contract or other legal encumbrance for construction of a public facility using development fee funds in whole or in part; and/or actual expenditure of development fee funds through payments made from a development fee account.

“Appurtenance” means any fixed machinery or equipment, structure or other fixture, including integrated hardware, software or other components, associated with a capital facility and necessary or convenient to the operation, use, or maintenance of a capital facility, but excluding replacement of the same after initial installation.

“Building permit” means any permit issued by the city that authorizes vertical construction, increases square footage, or authorizes changes to land use.

“Capital facility” means an asset having a useful life of three or more years that is a component of one or more categories of necessary public service provided by the city. A capital facility may include any associated purchase of real property, architectural and engineering services leading to the design and construction of buildings and facilities, improvements to existing facilities, improvements to or expansions of existing facilities, and associated financing and professional services. Whenever used herein, “infrastructure” shall have the same meaning as “capital facilities.”

“Category of development” means a specific land use category against which a development impact fee is calculated and assessed.

“Category of necessary public service” means a category of necessary public service for which the city is authorized to assess development impact fees pursuant to A.R.S. § 9-463.05, which includes street facilities, fire facilities, police facilities, and parks and recreational facilities.

“Credit” means a reduction in an assessed development impact fee resulting from developer contributions to, payments for, construction of, or dedications for capital facilities included in the infrastructure improvements plan pursuant to MCC 15.10.120 or as otherwise permitted by this chapter.

“Credit agreement” means a written agreement between the city and the developer(s) of subject development that allocates credits to the subject development pursuant to MCC 15.10.120. A credit agreement may be included as part of a development agreement pursuant to MCC 15.10.120.

“Credit allocation” is a term used to describe when credits are distributed to a particular development or parcel of land after execution of a credit agreement, but are not yet issued.

“Credit issuance” is a term used to describe when the amount of an assessed development impact fee attributable to a particular development or parcel of land is reduced by applying a credit allocation.

“Developer” means an individual, group of individuals, partnership, corporation, limited liability company, association, municipal corporation, state agency, or other person or entity undertaking land development activity, and their respective successors and assigns.

“Development agreement” means an agreement prepared in accordance with the requirements of MCC 15.10.130, A.R.S. § 9-500.05, and any applicable requirements of the city code.

“Direct benefit” means a benefit to an EDU resulting from a capital facility that: (1) addresses the need for a necessary public service created in whole or in part by the EDU; and that (2) meets either of the following criteria: (a) the capital facility is located in the immediate area of the EDU and is needed in the immediate area of the EDU to maintain the level of service; or (b) the capital facility substitutes for, or eliminates the need for, a capital facility that would have otherwise have been needed in the immediate area of the EDU to maintain the city’s level of service.

“Equipment” means machinery, tools, materials, and other supplies, not including vehicles, that are needed by a capital facility to provide the level of service specified by the infrastructure improvement plan, but excluding replacement of the same after initial development of the capital facility.

“Equivalent demand unit (EDU)” means a unit of development within a particular category of development, defined in terms of a standardized measure of the demand that a unit of development in that category of development generates for necessary public services in relation to the demand generated by a detached single-family housing unit. For all categories of necessary public services, the EDU factor for a detached single-family housing unit is one, while the EDU factor for a unit of development within another category of development is represented as a ratio of the demand for each category of necessary public services typically generated by that unit as compared to the demand for such services typically generated by a detached single-family housing unit. An EDU shall be a “service unit” for purposes of A.R.S. § 9-463.05(T)(10).

“Excluded park facility” means park and recreational facilities for which development fees may not be charged pursuant to A.R.S. § 9-463.05.

“Fee report” means a written report developed pursuant to MCC 15.10.090 that identifies the methodology for calculating the amount of each development impact fee, explains the relationship between the development impact fee to be assessed and the plan-based cost per service units calculated in the infrastructure improvements plan, and which meets other requirements set forth in A.R.S. § 9-463.05.

“Financing or debt” means any debt, bond, note, loan, interfund loan, fund transfer, or other debt service obligation used to finance the development or expansion of a capital facility.

“Fire protection” means a category of necessary public services that includes fire stations, fire equipment, fire vehicles and all appurtenances for fire stations. Fire protection does not include vehicles or equipment used to provide administrative services, or helicopters or airplanes. Fire protection does not include any facility used for training firefighters from more than one station or substation.

“General plan” refers to the overall land use plan for the city establishing areas of the city for different purposes, zones and activities, adopted pursuant to A.R.S. Title 9, Chapter 4, Article 6, as amended, including specific plans, if any, and including any part of such plan separately adopted and any amendment to such plan, or parts thereof.

“Grandfathered facilities” means capital facilities provided through financing or debt incurred before June 1, 2011, for which a development impact fee has been pledged towards repayment as described in MCC 15.10.050(C).

“Gross impact fee” means the total development impact fee to be assessed against a subject development on a per unit basis, prior to subtraction of any credits.

“Housing unit” means a house, apartment, mobile home or trailer, group of rooms, or single room occupied as separate living quarters or, if vacant, intended for occupancy as separate living quarters that is occupied by a year-round resident.

“Infrastructure improvement plan” means a document or series of documents that meet(s) the requirements set forth in A.R.S. § 9-463.05, including those adopted pursuant to city code to cover any category of necessary public services or combination of categories of necessary public services.

“Interim fee schedule” means any development impact fee schedule established prior to January 1, 2012, in accordance with then-applicable law, and which shall expire not later than July 27, 2014, pursuant to MCC 15.10.110.

“Land use assumptions” means projections of changes in land uses, densities, intensities and population for a service area over a period of at least 10 years as specified in MCC 15.10.070.

“Level of service ” means a quantitative and/or qualitative measure of a necessary public service that is to be provided by the city to development in a particular service area, defined in terms of the relationship between service capacity and service demand, accessibility, response times, comfort or convenience of use, or other similar measures or combinations of measures. Level of service may be measured differently for different categories of necessary public services, as identified in the applicable infrastructure improvements plan.

“Necessary public facilities or services” shall have the meaning prescribed in A.R.S. § 9-463.05(T)(5).

“Offset” means an amount that is subtracted from the overall costs of providing necessary public services to account for those capital components of infrastructure or associated debt that have been or will be paid for by a development through taxes, fees (except for development impact fees), and other revenue sources, as determined by the city pursuant to MCC 15.10.080.

“Parks and recreational facilities” means a category of necessary public services including but not limited to parks, swimming pools and related facilities and equipment located on real property not larger than 30 acres in area, as well as park facilities larger than 30 acres where such facilities provide a direct benefit. Parks and recreational facilities do not include excluded park facilities, although parks and recreational facilities may contain, provide access to, or otherwise support an excluded park facility.

“Plan-based cost per EDU” means the total future capital costs listed in the infrastructure improvements plan for a category of necessary public services divided by the total new equivalent demand units projected in a particular service area for that category of necessary public services over the same time period.

Pledged. Where used with reference to a development impact fee, a development impact fee shall be considered “pledged” where it was identified by the city as a source of payment or repayment for financing or debt that was identified as the source of financing for a necessary public service for which a development impact fee was assessed pursuant to the then-applicable provisions of A.R.S. § 9-463.05.

“Police facilities” means a category of necessary public services, including Vehicles and Equipment, that are used by law enforcement agencies to preserve the public peace, prevent crime, detect and arrest criminal offenders, protect the rights of persons and property, regulate and control motorized and pedestrian traffic, train sworn personnel, and/or provide and maintain police records, vehicles, equipment, and communications systems. Police facilities do not include vehicles and equipment used to provide administrative services, or helicopters or airplanes. Police facilities do not include any facility that is used for training officers from more than one station or substation.

“Qualified professional” means any one of the following: (a) a professional engineer, surveyor, financial analyst or planner, or other licensed professional providing services within the scope of that person’s education or experience related to city planning, zoning, or impact development fees and holding a license issued by an agency or political subdivision of the state of Arizona; (b) a financial analyst, planner, or other nonlicensed professional that is providing services within the scope of the person’s education or experience related to city planning, zoning, or impact development fees; or (c) any other person operating under the supervision of one or more of the above.

“Service area” means any specified area within the boundaries of the city within which: (a) the city will provide a category of necessary public services to development at a planned level of service; and (b) within which (i) a substantial nexus exists between the capital facilities to be provided and the development to be served, or (ii) in the case of a parks and recreational facility larger than 30 acres, a direct benefit exists between the parks and recreational facility and the development to be served, each as prescribed in the infrastructure improvements plan. Some or all of the capital facilities providing service to a service area may be physically located outside of that service area; provided, that the required substantial nexus or direct benefit is demonstrated to exist.

“Street facilities” means a category of necessary public services including arterial streets or roads and intersection improvements.

“Subject development” means a land area linked by a unified plan of development, which must be contiguous unless the land area is part of a development agreement executed in accordance with MCC 15.10.130.

Substantial Nexus. Substantial nexus exists where the demand for necessary public services that will be generated by an EDU can be reasonably quantified in terms of the burden it will impose on the available capacity of existing capital facilities, the need it will create for new or expanded capital facilities, and/or the benefit to the development from those capital facilities.

“Useful life” means the period of time during which an asset can reasonably be expected to be used under normal conditions, whether or not the asset will continue to be owned and operated by the city over the entirety of such period.

“Vehicle” means any device, structure, or conveyance utilized for transportation in the course of providing a particular category of necessary public services at a specified level of service, excluding helicopters and other aircraft. [Code 2004 § 17-2.]