Does your project fit?
Who the program is built for, the three tests every project is sized against, and what qualification does and does not guarantee.
Who this is built for
INSITE was designed around the project every other fee-financing route is too heavy for: a medium to small California residential development where the impact and school fees are large relative to the developer’s working capital, and where a conventional CFD’s election and hearings would cost more than the deal can carry.
Fits the program
- California residential development, roughly 2 to 50 lots.
- Subdivisions, lot splits, infill and ADU projects.
- Single ownership across the parcels going into the district — one signature annexes them.
- Entitled, or far enough along that the fee schedule is knowable.
- Inside, or able to be brought inside, a participating agency’s future annexation area.
- Finished-lot value that clears the collateral test below.
Does not fit
- Projects outside California.
- Commercial or industrial development.
- Parcels in an agency that has not joined the program.
- Fragmented ownership that cannot deliver unanimous owner approval.
- Projects where the total tax burden would exceed the ceiling below.
- Costs that are not eligible public fees — land, soft costs, or vertical construction.
The financial tests
Three independent limits are calculated per home, and the smallest is what the project gets. They are working program assumptions, confirmed per project at term sheet.
Collateral — value to lien of 4:1
Financing per home is capped at 25% of the appraised finished-lot value, which holds the ratio of value to lien at four to one. The appraisal is prepared to the program’s standard, valuing the lot as finished with the fees treated as paid.
Assessment capacity — 0.50% target, 2% ceiling
The special tax is sized against a target annual assessment of roughly 0.50% of home value, over a 30-year term. Above that sits a hard ceiling: the total property tax burden on the finished home — the parcel’s published rate and its existing direct charges included — is held under 2% of home value. On a parcel already carrying a heavy rate, this ceiling, not the collateral, is often what binds.
Eligible fees — the financeable share
Only certain public impact and school fees are eligible, and the program advances a share of them rather than the whole amount. Certain acquisition costs and incidental financing expenses may also be eligible where the formation documents authorise them, the agency approves, and the law permits.
Run your own numbers on the project model — enter the site and the fees come from that jurisdiction’s published schedules, with all three caps updating as you move the sliders.
What gets financed
The program focuses on development impact fees and school facilities fees associated with qualifying residential development — not the full range of costs the Mello-Roos Act would otherwise allow. In practice that is the money you would hand over at the permit counter: city and county impact fees, school district fees, and the connection and capacity charges of the districts serving the site.
It does not finance land, entitlement costs, horizontal construction, or vertical construction. Those stay yours to fund — which is the point. The capital freed at the counter is what pays for them.
How qualification works
Every proposed development is reviewed before it goes to the public agency for annexation. Qualification confirms the project meets the program’s project-type, underwriting, legal and documentation requirements.
Qualification does not create a right to annexation or financing. Final participation remains subject to public agency approval, completion of the required legal proceedings, satisfaction of financing requirements, and availability of capital.
Start with screening — four questions, about a minute, and it commits you to nothing.