City looking into loss of fees

Eron Ben-Yehuda

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- The city may have lost or misplaced thousands, if

not millions, of dollars by failing to follow two of its own ordinances,

a city commission chairman said.

“There’s all kinds of money that has disappeared or has never been

collected,” said Gerald Chapman, who chairs the Planning Commission and

is vice-chair of the Infrastructure Advisory Committee.

Chapman said he decided to investigate the city’s fee collection

policies because he wanted to be assured of the city’s fiscal

responsibility in the event residents are asked to support a bond to pay

for the city’s $1.3-billion infrastructure needs.

The city is already in the process of revising its statute on the fees

charged to developers for open space, but Chapman’s allegations about the

money meant to help the transportation system sparked an investigation

earlier this month, City Administrator Ray Silver said.

Until a report is completed within 60 days, Silver cautioned against

jumping to any conclusions.

“There have been rumors out there but, unfortunately, we have a lot of

rumors,” he said. “I’ve got to find out what the facts are first.”

Whenever a project in the city affects surrounding traffic congestion,

the city exacts a fee from the developer to help pay for street

maintenance, among other things. The law, passed in 1990, requires the

city to annually set aside into special funds an amount equal to what the

developers have put in.

While the city has collected the money from developers, it has never

forked over its share, Chapman said.

“There has never been a dime paid into the funds,” Chapman said.

Also at issue is an ordinance that requires developers to either set

aside land or pay a fee equivalent to the land’s value for parks.

Passed in 1990, the law initially set the fair market value for an

acre of park land at $182,000. Although the ordinance requires a

reappraisal every two years, the next one wasn’t done until 1998, eight

years later, when the city approved a 313-unit residential subdivision

known as Meadowlark by Warner and Heil avenues, said the city’s Associate

Planner Amy Wolfe. The amount was set at $516,000 per acre, with another

increase now under consideration, she said.

“We went for years not going through the process the way we should

have done,” said Community Services Deputy Director Jim Engle.

In those eight years, at least 240 projects were approved by the city,

Planning Commissioner Tom Livengood said.

Developers got off cheap as a result, Chapman said.

“We left a tremendous amount of money on the table,” he said.