1. The local government shall, upon the request of an owner of real property for which an impact fee has been collected, refund the impact fee and any interest and income earned on the impact fee by the local government, if:

(a) After collecting the fee the local government did not begin construction of the capital improvement or facility expansion for which the fee was collected within 5 years after collecting the fee; or

(b) The fee, or any portion thereof, was not spent for the purpose for which it was collected within 10 years after the date on which it was collected.

2. The local government shall, upon the completion of the capital improvement or facility expansion identified in the capital improvements plan or upon expenditure of fees collected from a development, recalculate the impact fee for that development by using the actual costs of the capital improvement or facility expansion or the actual costs of those capital improvements or facility expansions completed and engineering estimates of those capital improvements or facility expansions to be completed within the service area.

3. If the impact fee based on the cost or recalculated cost is less than the impact fee paid, the local government shall refund:

(a) The difference if the actual costs are known; or

(b) The difference if it exceeds the impact fee paid by more than 10 percent, if estimates are used,

and any interest and income earned by the local government on the amount of money refunded.

4. The local government shall refund any impact fee or part thereof, and any interest and income earned by the local government on the amount of money refunded, if it is not spent within 10 years after the date of payment.

5. Each refund must be paid to the owner of the property on record at the time the refund is paid. If a local government paid the impact fee, the refund must be paid to that local government.

6. Any limitation of time established by this section is suspended for any period, not to exceed 1 year, during which this State or the Federal Government takes any action to protect the environment or an endangered species which prohibits, stops or delays the construction of the capital improvement or facility expansion for which an impact fee was collected.

(Added to NRS by 1989, 844; A 1991, 298)