NCFPD approves Meadowood CFD agreement

The agreement for a Community Facilities District for Pardee Homes' Meadowood development received the support of the North County Fire Protection District.

A 5-0 NCFPD board vote April 24 authorized NCFPD fire chief Steve Abbott to execute the Joint Community Facilities Agreement with the county which will utilize the Community Facilities District to assess taxes upon property to help fund services to the area including fire protection and emergency medical services.

"We're thankful to have that mechanism," Abbott said. "It will allow both the fire department and the county to be able to afford to serve that project."

In January 2012, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors approved the 384-acre Meadowood development which will include 397 single-family homes, 447 multi-family dwelling units, 13 acres for an elementary school which will be built by the Bonsall Unified School District, four acres of park land, 128 acres of biological open space, 47 acres of agricultural open space, 5.9 miles of trails, and a wastewater treatment plant.

The one percent property tax will not be sufficient to cover county, San Diego County Flood Control District, or North County Fire Protection District services which will be needed to serve Meadowood.

The county and Pardee have been working to create a Community Facilities District which would include a special tax to pay for services not funded by the regular property tax. The revenue would be distributed through a Joint Community Facilities Agreement which stipulates the collection process as well as the distribution process.

In 2007 the county supervisors adopted Board Policy I-136 which outlines how potential Community Facilities District projects will be evaluated, ensures that the CFDs are created for the public good, and stipulates disclosure requirements which notify prospective property owners of the assessment.

Policy I-136 also defines credit requirements to protect bondholders from default for CFDs which issue bonds for reimbursement of constructed infrastructure, although Meadowood will fund services only and will not use long-term bonds.

The Community Facilities District would allow for the collection of three special taxes: one for county services, one for flood control services (although the county supervisors also serve as the board of the San Diego County Flood Control District and the flood control district is administered by the county's Department of Public Works, it is a separate legal district), and one for fire and emergency medical services.

The first step required to form a CFD is a petition from the developer, which has been received along with the proposed boundary map. Because the proposed CFD area is currently uninhabited and Pardee is the sole property owner, a consent and waiver will allow for a waiver of the normal election procedure to form the CFD and the ballot to form the CFD can be returned immediately upon the adoption of the resolution forming the assessment district.

In 2014 San Diego County's Local Agency Formation Commission detached the Meadowood land from the San Diego County Regional Fire Authority boundaries and annexed the 384 acres into the North County Fire Protection District.

The LAFCO transfer provided the North County Fire Protection District with seven percent of the one percent basic property tax assessment which was based on previous property tax exchange agreements.

That funding will not cover the full cost of delivering fire protection and emergency medical service to Meadowood, so additional revenue to cover the fire district's cost to serve the area will be obtained through the CFD. The fire district received $389,000 in annexation fees as part of the annexation process.

The CFD would not have a levy for fire protection and emergency medical services on the undeveloped property. Each single-family unit would initially be assessed $287 for the fire and emergency medical services tax while each multi-family dwelling unit would be assessed $186. That translates into approximately $197,000 of revenue for the North County Fire Protection District.

The initial tax amount is for fiscal year 2018-19. The taxes would be increased by two percent annually to cover the increased cost of services.