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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1998-10-06; City Council; 14877; Regional Development Impact Fees. . 2 E 2 P . . p 2 g z CITY OF CARLSBAD - AGEi3A BILL AB# /+873 =I REQUEST TO SPEAK ON MTG. 1 O/6/98 REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT IMPACT FEES DEPT. CM DEPT. HD. RECOMMENDED ACTION: Receive presentation from Mr. Jerry Harmon on the subject of regional development impact fees. ITEM EXPLANATION: Mr. Jerry Harmon has asked to address the City Council on the subject of regional development impact fees. EXHIBITS: 1. Memo from Mr. Jerry Harmon dated g/8/98. El9/68/1998 13:23 7688399128 September 801, 1998 PAGE 81 To: Carlsbad Ci ak about Regional Development Impact Fees I would like to address your City Council on the subject of “Regional Impact Fees” and request time on your agenda for this subject. This proposal directly affects your city and will be the subject of an agenda item at SANDAG at their regular meeting on Friday September 25th. It would be most timely to speak to your City Council before the SANDAG meeting so X request time on your agenda for Tuesday September 15th if at all possible. Otherwise I would like to appear on September 22nd. Thank you for your consideration. ‘You may respond by phone to my home 760-480-9483 or mail to 1021 Madison, Escondido 92027. RESOLUTION NUMBER A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF CARLSBAD, CALIFORNIA SUPPORTING A STUDY TO DETERMINE THE DOLLAR AMOUNT FOR A REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT IMPACT FEE REQUIRED TO PROVIDE THE ADDITIONAL FINANCING TO IMPLEMENT TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS WITHIN THE I-5, I-15 AND HIGHWAY S 78 AND 76 CORRIDORS. WHEREAS, every city in San Diego County has enacted Development Impact Fees to cause new population growth to pay its fair share of capital improvement costs; and WHEREAS, it is projected that this region will increase in population by at least l,OOO,OOO persons within the next twenty years and will require additional freeway lanes, interchanges, mass transit, and other capital improvements; and WHEREAS, in addition to transportation improvements the region will require new courts, jails, county health, safety, and welfare facilities, libraries, parks, and educational facilities; and WHEREAS, presently no REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT IMPACT FEES are collected to cause future population growth to pay its fair share of the future REGIONAL capital improvements; and WHEREAS, the City Council deems this action to be in the public interest for health, safety, and welfare to approve in concept a study to determine a dollar amount for new REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT IMPACT FEES. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the City Council of Carlsbad, California, as follows: 1. That the above recitations are true. 2. That the City Council approves in concept a study to determine the dollar amount of a REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT IMPACT FEE required to provide the additional financing needed to implement traffic management solutions within the I-5, I-l 5, Highway 78and 76 corridors, and 3. The RDIF dollar amount for all other regional capital requirements. ‘. . Projected Approved or Partially Approved Residential Housing Units As of 4116198 Community Escondido San Marcos Vista Oceanside Carlsbad Valley Center Number of Units 1,500 3,400 ??? . . 2,boo 6,785 Orchard Ranch Woods Valley Ranch Christopher Hill Santa Fe Valley 4s Ranch Sabre Springs Sub Area 1 Black Mnt Ranch North Black Mnt Ranch South Sub Area 3 Sub Area 4 400 590 400 1,200 4,965 500 5,000 1,100 5,000 2,800 Grand Total 35,640 - w**-r *A* &A&..- u UUL.-A”--b Y c .-_.-. *, -& -. “W, Thursday -I:-’ July 23, 1998 .Developers agree to pay millions to ease traffic lea1 is unprecedented; -15 would benefit most ‘:y Kathryn Balint T4FF WRITER RANCH0 BERNARD0 - Yayne Hill and Dennis Moser prob- .bly won’t win any popularity con- ests among fellow developers. That’s because yesterday they rommitted to do something no de- :eloper in San Diego County has lone before: pay millions for free- yays and mass transit. All told, they’ve agreed to chip in aore than $43 million to ease con- Testion on Interstate 15 between rate routes 78 and 163, and to omplete state Route 56, which will mnect I- 15 in Ranch0 Pefiasquitos +xh Interstate 5 in Carmel Valley. The unprecedented gesture - while it might not win friends in the uilding industry - might win over xstrated North County commut- rs. who say the more than 10,000 .omes the developers propose will nly further congest freeways. The developers’ announcement :as made at a meeting of Citizens o Improve I-15, a group formed by ian Diego Councilwoman Barbara Varden. whose 5th District in- :udes Ranch0 Bernardo. Hill, project manager for the pro- osed Black Mountain Ranch devel- pment north of Ranch0 Pefiasqui- 2s. said his company will come up _ with.$10.3 million to improve I-15, $13.2 million for state Route 56 and $1.5 million for mass transit. Moser, vice president of the company that is proposing the 4s Ranch development west of Ranch0 Bernardo, pledged $17.2 million to- ward I-15 and $1 million for mass transit. The money is contingent on vot- ers in the city of San Diego approv- ing Black Mountain Ranch in No- vember, and on the county Board of Supervisors giving the green light to 4s Ranch this year. “It’s basically self-serving, be- cause if the freeway doesn’t work, we’re not going to sell houses,” Hill said. See TRAFFIC otl Page A-20 Traffic Offers are contingent on approval of projects Continuedfrom A-l Moser said the contributions “go way beyond anything in the past.” “‘I think all the citizens on the I-15 corridor are the recipients of the benefits,” he said. Warden and county Supervisor Pam Slater said the companies will be bound by contracts to ensure payment, and are not being given any development concessions for agreeing to pay the money. How it will be spent, however, was unclear yesterday. The state Department of Transportation has not decided where the money will fit into 1-15’s future. “The deal was just made between the developers and the city and the : -- i ‘,: ‘2 ‘.:..:I .‘, p f ;: ZT =, c: ‘y, , ’ ..,a ‘. I . . 32 - , 6 I . . _ A,.’ a0 @J I 42 / 1 P :: 1 .- n 5 i t,, i 6 i L ,I , REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT IMPACT FEES We need to establish “Regional Development Impact Fees.” Every city in San Diego County has “development fees”, as a source of income to pay for capital improvements that will be needed as our populations increase in accordance with our General Plans. The average fees per single family house in the region are approximately $20,000. However, no fees for capital improvements are collected for: courts and jails, transportation, open space and recreation, health facilities, social service facilities, etc. We expect an increase in population of l,OOO,OOO people in San Diego County within the next twenty years. Question, where should we get the money to pay for the capital improvements to meet the needs of the additional one million people? Current public policy responds to that question by expecting voters to pass bond issues or have their sales taxes increased if they hope to maintain their quality of life standards. It is time to expand an already successful policy of making population growth pay its way by now collecting Regional Development Impact Fees in every city in the county at the same time we collect our respective city development fees. We have a proven model that works for cities; we should expand it to the region. Further, we have a proven model that works to administer those new fees. For ten years SANDAG has served as The Regional Transportation Commission to administer fees collected as a half-cent sales tax for transportation. We need to establish a “Regional Capital Improvement Commission”, which could be SANDAG, to do the same work for other needed infrastructure. We collect development fees each time we issue a building permit in every city, and at the county permit counters. We could collect an additional fee to meet the needs of new courts and jails, new regional roads, freeways (the half-cent sales tax has a sunset clause in ten years), open space and recreational facilities, health facilities, and other needed regional capital improvements. This would remove the tax burden from existing taxpayers and make new population growth pay its fair share. To determine the amount of the new regional fee, our local elected representatives should first determine what our quality of life standards are ’ ‘, . going to be at the regional level. For example, what should the number of courts and jails per 1000 population be, level of service on our regional roads and freeways, open space and recreational acreage per capita, etc? Once these standards are determined professionals can then calculate the revenue needed to build the necessary capital improvements to keep up with the demands of population growth. It will then be. up to elected officials to run government like a business and set,public policies that will protect the quality of life and pocket books of existing residents and businesses as we continue to increase our population. This can then be done without asking existing taxpayers to pass new bond issues or increase their sales taxes, gas taxes, or other taxes. This new policy would make population growth pay its fair share. If we were not dramatically increasing our population, then existing policies would be sufficient. But, when we realize we must plan to add another population increment equal to the size of the city of San Diego in this region within the next twenty years then we need to up date our policies to make them fair to existing taxpayers. Jerry C. Harmon Escondido Council member Candidate, 5* Supervisorial District Fee4 REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT IMPACT FEES DO NOT INCREASE THE PRICE OF HOUSING All cities in San Diego County have been collecting development impact fees for the past twenty years. However, no fees have been collected to make new population growth pay its fair share for county-wide needs such as freeways, courts, jails, open space, etc. To do this we need new public policy to collect Regional Development Impact Fees. Developers have opposed development impact fees since they were first discussed in the early 1970’s. Then they said if such fees were imposed that it would stop growth. In 1978 when proposition 13, the property tax limitation initiative was passed by the voters, the developers had no choice and began paying development fees to help make new population growth pay its fair share. To minimize the amount they would pay they hired public relations firms to advance the argument that new fees would increase the price of new homes. At first glance this seems like a reasonable argument until one stops to analyze its flawed logic. It is true “development fees” cost someone but it is not primarily the homebuyer, contrary to popular belief. Consider the following questions and (answers): 1. Does the market place determine the price of housing? (Yes.) 2. In a free enterprise society, do developers sell their finished product for whatever price the market will allow? (Yes) 3. If there were zero development fees, would developers still sell their product for what ever the market would allow? (Of Course.) 4. There are five components of housing costs: I. Cost of material II. Cost of labor III. Profit, and overhead IV. Development Fees V. Cost of land If material, labor, profit, and fees are basic market driven costs of housing, what will an increase in “Development Fees” do to the value of raw land? (Lower it.) 5. So isn’t it true that the person who owns the raw land is ultimately the one who will absorb most of the cost of development fees? (Yes, Unless the developer made a bad business decision and over paid for the land!) Remember, without roads, freeways, schools, courts, jails, water, etc. the value of raw land is minimal. 6. Do you believe therefore, that we should modify the way we pay for capital improvements? Shouldn’t we collect “development fees” up front rather than waiting for schools, roads, freeways, courts, jails, etc. to become over crowded. Wouldn’t this be better than asking all taxpayers to increase their taxes to “catch up” with the needed capital improvements even if this means that it will decrease the value of undeveloped land? (If you value your quality of life and your property values and want to minimize your taxes, the answer is YES! If you own undeveloped land and want to get the most profit possible from the sale of your land the answer is NO!) The above policy would make population growth pay its fair share. There is no moral or ethical problem placing the costs of future capital improvements on raw land owners, in my opinion, because land is not worth what the market has valued it at due to the out of date public policies which burden existing taxpayers with unfair costs. If we were not dramatically increasing our population, then existing policies would be sufficient. But, when we realize we must plan to add another population increment equal to the size of the city of San Diego in this region within the next twenty years then we need to up date our policies to make them fair to existing taxpayers. Jerry C. Harmon Escondido Council member Candidate, 5* Supervisorial District )’ . . . s m mm E KS E ‘C 0 8% L SE ym 0 03 s ‘f p S’ , Petition for Responsible Development By the cities of Carlsbad, Escondido, Oceanside, San Marcos, Vista, San Diego, Poway, Encinitas, Solana Beach, De1 Mar, and the County of San Diego. m Traffic on local freeways (I-15, I-5,78) is becoming intolerable. m Approximately 30,000 to 40,000 more homes are in the process of being approved in North County. This translates to 300,000 to 400,000 more trips per day on our roads and freeways. We, the existing residents, believe that only after improvements have been made on our freeways to relieve this traffic congestion should building permits for new developments over four units be issued by the above named cities and the County of San Diego. 1 All signers of this petition must be registered to vote in the County of San Diego. 1 NAME ADDRESS TELEPHONEC ) CITY CA, ZIP NAME p TELEPHONE( ) ADDRESS CITY CA, ZIP A NAME ADDRESS TELEPHONE( ) CITY CA, ZIP p NAME R , TELEPHONE( ) ADDRESS CITY CA, ZIP T ADDRESS cl TELEPHONE( ) CITY CA, ZIP I i , A NAME ADDRESS n -1