Temecula, CA Development Impact Fees (2026)

Temecula residential builders pay a layered set of fees from the City plus several separate agencies. CITY OF TEMECULA (Master DIF flyer "Development Fees Effective July 1, 2025," Res. 03-63 with annual BCI adjustment): (1) Public Facilities Development Impact Fee (DIF) — a single combined per-unit fee: Detached $14,415.70/unit, Attached $10,320.84/unit. The flyer does NOT publish a category-by-category breakdown of the DIF (the city code lumps it under one "Public Facilities DIF"), so it is reported here as one general/capital row. (2) MSHCP habitat mitigation fee (calculated by WRCRCA, Ord. 07-01, CPI-adjusted): $4,486.00/DU for the lowest-density tier (<8.0 DU/acre, representative for detached SF), with denser tiers $1,870 and $827 included as excluded alternates; a $15.45 admin fee applies per payment. (3) Quimby parks in-lieu fee: ~$4,836 per single-family detached unit per the flyer's worked example (base land value $310,000/acre x 3.12 avg persons/DU x 0.005 acre factor); this is an in-lieu fee that applies only when land is not dedicated. (4) Stephens' Kangaroo Rat (K-Rat) habitat fee: $250.00/DU for lots greater than 1/2 gross acre. (5) Uptown Temecula New Streets In-Lieu Fee: $7,894.84/unit — applies ONLY within the Uptown Temecula Specific Plan area, so it is marked excludeFromTotal. (6) Art in Public Places: 1/10 of 1% of project valuation over $100,000 — percentage-based, not a flat per-unit amount, so not included as a numeric row. SEPARATE AGENCIES (real builder costs, attributed in notes): TUMF (Western Riverside Council of Governments regional transportation fee, official schedule effective April 1, 2025): Single-Family Residential $15,476/DU (this is the base AB-602 schedule rate corresponding to the 2,301-2,700 sf tier; smaller homes pay less, larger pay more), Multi-Family $7,816/DU.

School fee

Temecula Valley Unified School District Level 1 developer fee $5.17/sq ft residential (current; rising to $5.38/sq ft effective 6/16/2026) — a representative ~2,100 sf home = ~$10,857; this is a real, mandatory per-sq-ft cost attributed to the school district.

Water

Rancho California Water District capacity fee $2,943 per Meter Equivalent Unit (MEU) for the Rancho Division (Santa Rosa Water sub-area $3,102/MEU shown as excluded alternate), adopted with the FY2025/26 budget effective July 1, 2025; RCWD has a proposed increase to $3,183/MEU targeted for Jan 1, 2026 (board action requested Oct 9, 2025) that this analyst could not confirm as finally adopted.

Sewer

Eastern Municipal Water District (EMWD) is Temecula's sewer provider per the WRCOG fee-comparison study; EMWD's per-EDU residential sewer connection cost is additive across three components — Sewer Financial Participation Charge $3,626/EDU + Sewer Treatment Plant Capacity Charge $6,876/EDU + Recycled Water Supply Development Fee $420/EDU (2026 fees), totaling ~$10,922/EDU.

What does not exist / caveats

California prohibits standalone municipal "school impact fees," but the school-district Level-1 facilities fee (captured above) is the functional equivalent and is a real cost. The City does not publish separate line-item parks/fire/police/library/drainage DIFs in its public flyer — they are bundled into the single Public Facilities DIF, so per-category amounts are not independently verifiable. No general affordable-housing in-lieu fee is published in the city DIF flyer. Mello-Roos/CFD special taxes are common in Temecula's master-planned areas but are out of scope (ongoing special taxes, not one-time builder impact fees). RCWD's "Santa Rosa Water" and "Sewer Division" figures are for specific sub-service-areas; the primary water row uses the base Rancho Division MEU fee and primary sewer rows use EMWD (Temecula's main sewer provider). Builders should obtain a project-specific TUMF estimate from WRCOG and confirm the applicable water/sewer service area, since Temecula is split among service territories. VERIFY (2026-06-17, independent re-fetch of all 7 sources): confirmed 16 of 16 rows; dropped 0. City DIF flyer (src 0) re-fetched and verbatim-confirmed all city-sourced figures (Detached $14,415.70, Attached $10,320.84, MSHCP $4,486/$1,870/$827, K-Rat $250, Quimby $4,836, Uptown $7,894.84). WRCOG TUMF schedule (src 2) verbatim-confirmed SF $15,476 and MF $7,816. TVUSD page (src 3) confirmed $5.17/sf current (rising to $5.38 effective 6/16/2026). RCWD workshop PDF (src 4) confirmed "Current Fees: Adopted with FY 2025/26 Budget (July 1, 2025) ... Rancho Water $2,943 per MEU" and Santa Rosa $3,102/MEU, with proposed $3,183 (Rancho)/$3,176 (Santa Rosa) targeted Jan 1, 2026 NOT yet confirmed adopted. EMWD page (src 5) confirmed all three additive sewer components ($3,626 + $6,876 + $420). EMWD confirmed independently as Temecula's sewer provider (Temecula is in EMWD's retail wastewater service area; Temecula Valley Regional Water Reclamation Facility). excludeFromTotal corrections: none needed — flags were already correct (MSHCP 8.1-14.0 and >14.1 tiers, Santa Rosa water alt, and Uptown in-lieu all correctly excluded; the three EMWD sewer components correctly additive/not excluded). Representative SF detached additive total ~$64,185/unit verified as sane with no double-counting. Note: school row effectiveDate is carried as 2025-01-01 but the source only states the $5.17 rate is current "through 6/15/26"; the amount and quote are confirmed.