Fees

The city’s Development Fee Schedule contains all current city fees applicable to development. This includes permitting, inspection, impact fee, and other fees assessed by the city relating to construction and development.

Fee deferral program

The fee deferral program gives developers the option to defer impact fees, also referred to as Public Facilities Fees, but only until the development is ready for its utility release. The purpose is to assist new development by gradually implementing the upfront costs of development in the City of San Marcos.

Fee deferral form(PDF, 370KB)

An application to defer payment of PFF must be completed and approved. As a condition of the deferment, a lien will be recorded on the affected property with the County Recorder for the County of San Diego, in the amount that is deferred and shall be enforceable against successors in interest to Owner.

2026 fee update

Development Impact Fees, Inclusionary Housing In-Lieu Fees, and User Fees will be considered by Council on June 23rd for updates to reflect inflationary adjustments. Development Impact Fees and Inclusionary Housing Fees are proposed to be updated corresponding to the Construction Cost Index annual increase as of March 2026 of 2.7%. The Development User Fees are proposed to be increased corresponding to the San Diego area consumer price index annual increase as of March 2026 of 3.2%. The proposed revised fee amounts are shown in the attachments below.

Inclusionary-housing-fees-proposed-2026.pdf(PDF, 110KB)
User-fees-proposed-2026.pdf(PDF, 369KB)
Development-impact-fees-proposed-2026.pdf(PDF, 160KB)

Grace period

As part of Impact Fees in effect on March 3, 2025, the City Council authorized the ability of “active” applicants to have a 2-year grace period through March 3, 2027, where those projects would be subject to prior Impact Fees.