Council to Study Citywide Developer Fees

In a potentially expensive proposal for developers, the San Diego City Council on Thursday agreed to consider imposing fees on new development to pay for public facilities used by residents citywide.

The fees, proposed by Councilman Ed Struiksma, would pay for city needs such as a new central library, California Routes 56 and 125, improvements to Mission Bay and Balboa parks and the acquisition of open space, he said.

Developers now pay fees that are devoted to construction of schools, parks, libraries, roads and sewer systems in the communities where they build. But Struiksma suggested that because the added population brought in by new development also uses some facilities in other parts of the city, a fee to support those facilities would be appropriate.

The council, meeting in a special workshop to identify funding for hundreds of millions of dollars in needed facilities, directed City Manager John Lockwood to compile a list of facilities used by residents citywide. The list and the fees proposal will be discussed at the May 1 council meeting.

Struiksma said he had no information on how large the new fees might be but said he wants them imposed on new residential, commercial and industrial development. He added that he has been proposing the idea for the past three years.

The San Diego Assn. of Governments is studying methods of imposing such fees on development throughout the county, but Struiksma said he is unwilling to wait for the results of that study.

Kim Kilkenny, legislative counsel for the Construction Industry Federation, said council members “skirted the issue” of finding creative ways to finance new facilities.

“The only thing they talked about was a tax on new development,” he said. “They want new development to pay for old deficiencies” in the city’s urbanized areas, where $645 million worth of facilities are needed, Kilkenny said.

The council also appointed a nine-member task force headed by former Assistant City Manager John Fowler to study methods of paying for public facilities needs.