LA County Fee-in-Lieu Alternative Compliance

LOS ANGELES COUNTY, CA

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Funding for the implementation of structural stormwater control measures is a challenge facing the County of Los Angeles and other municipalities covered by the County MS4 Permit. Lotus is part of a multi-disciplinary team evaluating the viability and feasibility for implementation of a fee-in-lieu program for the County, providing recommendations for an approach that is tailored to the specific needs of the County that will allow project proponents to achieve compliance by paying a fee to the regulating agency in lieu of implementing on-site stormwater control measures.  The team is developing a framework for a program that has the potential to generate funding for stormwater projects and for the improvement of water quality throughout the County’s coastal watersheds. As an additional benefit, the fee-in-lieu program would provide the development community with greater flexibility in complying with stormwater requirements particularly for highly constrained sites, while establishing a foundation for implementing other alternative compliance mechanisms. 

Lotus is providing technical analyses and guidance that builds off over a decade of expertise and lessons learned from leading the development and expansion of similar alternative compliance programs and policies for agencies across the West Coast, including the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), the King County (WA) CSO Control Program, and the City of Vancouver (BC). Key tasks include: the collection and assessment of current compliance costs from publicly and privately developed projects within the County of Los Angeles, development of a cost basis and framework for the fee-in-lieu program, and engagement with regulators on the viability of the fee-in-lieu program to address regulatory requirements of existing and future NPDES permits.