Development Agreements
A development agreement is a tool for establishing a vested right to proceed with development in conformance with the policies, rules, and regulations in effect at the time of approval (§65864). Development agreements provide a developer with assurances for a specified length of time that his/her project may proceed as originally approved, even where additional discretionary approvals are required and land use regulations have changed. In many cases and in exchange for this assurance, the landowner/developer may agree to a larger dedication of land or in-lieu fee for public use as a condition of the agreement.
A specific plan facilitates the administration of a development agreement by separating the development policies and regulations applied to project site from those of the jurisdiction as a whole. This enables a local agency to revise its jurisdiction-wide plans and ordinances without affecting the policies and regulations "frozen" by an agreement. A specific plan adopted in correlation with a development agreement would only be amended when corresponding changes are made to the agreement. (See Midway Orchards v. County of Butte, 220 Cal. App. 3d 765 (1990); and 76 Ops. Cal. Atty. Gen. 227 (1994))