Warmington Old Town Associates v. Tustin Unified School Dist

In Warmington Old Town Associates v. Tustin Unified School Dist. (2002) 101 Cal.App.4th 840, a developer demolished 56 apartment units and replaced them with 36 single family homes. (Id. at p. 846.) The local school district imposed school impact fees of $122,080.22 on the project and the developer challenged the fees under the Mitigation Fee Act on the grounds there was an "insufficient 'nexus between the impact of the new residential units in terms of student generation and the facility fees' imposed." (Warmington, at p. 846.) The Court of Appeal agreed, concluding the fee study on which the school district relied to determine the amount of fees did not support a finding there was a reasonable relationship between the need for the public facility and the type of development project on which the fee was imposed. In Warmington, the study that the district relied on considered the costs associated with new residential construction, not redevelopment construction that replaced existing residences and reduced the number of potential students. (Id. at p. 862.)