The city of Escondido has scaled back a proposal to raise development fees for new construction by an amount needed to fully cover the costs for needed city infrastructure, and is instead moving forward with a plan to raise the fees by 2 percent to keep up with inflation.
At a meeting in September, city staff put forward a proposal to raise development fees by $9,300 per new single-family home, along with increases for multi-family, commercial and industrial buildings. The fees are charged to developers to pay for such improvements as parks, fire stations, libraries, roads, drainage and senior centers.
But developers, Realtors and others objected the city’s plan. The Building Industry Association of San Diego, which represents builders, questioned the analysis that went into establishing the proposed higher fees, and said it was prepared to file a legal challenge if the city went forward with the plan, said a city staff report.
The city then opted to change its strategy, said Assistant City Manager Jay Petrek. Instead of instituting the higher fees, the city will seek to raise fees by 2 percent now to cover the costs of inflation for building materials needed for infrastructure projects, and conduct a detailed financial analysis of its projected infrastructure needs.
The city decided to conduct the analysis, said Petrek, “so everything is water-tight.”
City staff plans to come back to the council in 2021 with a plan to raise fees to achieve the goal of full cost recovery for infrastructure projects, Petrek said.
At its meeting last week, the council was briefed on the new strategy, which includes a public hearing on Oct. 28 when the council will consider the 2 percent fee increase, as well as a request to allocate $100,000 to pay for the financial analysis.
Currently, the development fees charged by the city cover about 82 percent of infrastructure costs, said Petrek, with the rest coming from grants, bonds and other one-time revenue sources.
In 2017, he said, the council authorized annual 2 percent increases to keep up with inflation for building materials such as steel, lumber and concrete.
The 2 percent increase will raise the development fees charged for new single-family homes by about $340, Petrek said. Fees would also increase for development of multi-family homes, and commercial and industrial buildings. If approved on Oct. 28, the new fees would take effect in February.
Until the city completes its financial analysis and raises development fees by a larger amount, Escondido will still face a gap of tens of millions of dollars to fully pay for the infrastructure needed to serve new development, Petrek said.
At last week’s council meeting, the city received only one written public comment on the development fee issue, from the Escondido Chamber of Citizens.
In its comments, the group said it was “extremely disappointing and unfortunate” that the city changed course from its plan to set fees that would fully offset the cost of infrastructure projects.
“The proposed fee increase that is now limited to the annual 2 percent formula makes it more difficult for the City to accelerate collection of revenue necessary to stabilize the City’s extreme revenue deficit,” the group said.
However, the letter went on to say that the group is encouraged to read in the staff report that the city plans to move forward with a new fee proposal in the spring of 2021 aimed at fully covering the costs of needed public facilities.
"plan" - Google News
October 26, 2020 at 10:14AM
https://ift.tt/34vqgLj
Escondido pursues scaled-back plan to increase development fees - The San Diego Union-Tribune
"plan" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2un5VYV
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Escondido pursues scaled-back plan to increase development fees - The San Diego Union-Tribune"
Post a Comment