PLDO fee updates likely to go to supervisors in February

The updates of the Park Land Dedication Ordinance fees provided by developers to fund park improvements in a development’s community are expected to go before the San Diego Board of Supervisors for consideration of adoption in early February.

The county’s Department of Parks and Recreation has targeted a February 7 date for a Board of Supervisors hearing, although that particular Wednesday isn’t guaranteed to be the day for which the item is docketed.

“A lot of work has gone into this proposal, not just with county staff but many people out in the community,” said Brian Albright, the assistant director of the Department of Parks and Recreation. “We’re real pleased to be at a point where we have something that reflects the needs of parks and the cost of providing these parks in each community.”

The fees have not been revised since 1986, and the Department of Parks and Recreation prepared a new fee structure to reflect the increased cost of land and construction over two decades. “This proposal was floated almost a year ago,” Albright said.

In 1965 the State of California adopted the Quimby Act which authorizes local governments to assess impact fees on new residential development to provide funding for park and recreation facilities to serve the new development. The Quimby Act allows fees adequate to provide three acres of park land per 1,000 residents, although a local agency may establish a higher standard of up to five acres of park land per 1,000 residents.

Currently the unincorporated Oceanside area is the only park planning area in which the county is meeting the standard of three acres of community park land per 1,000 residents, and while other funding sources such as grants, bond funding, and general funds have been used to supplement PLDO revenue the county has become increasingly deficient in meeting the standard.

The Department of Parks and Recreation developed a “model park” methodology, based on current land and construction costs, to identify the rates currently needed to acquire and develop park and recreation facilities to meet the standard of three acres per 1,000 residents. The department solicited input from each of the county’s community planning groups and community sponsor groups and from the Building Industry Association as well as from the county’s Parks Advisory Committee. More than 50 meetings were held with various community groups and other organizations.

The Parks Advisory Committee voted unanimously to support the proposed fee increases while the Building Industry Association chose not to take a position. Four community planning or sponsor groups, including the Rainbow Community Planning Group, took no position on the proposal while the remaining 22 planning and sponsor groups were evenly split. The Fallbrook Community Planning Group and the Bonsall and Pala-Pauma sponsor groups were all among the 11 planning or sponsor groups which favored the proposal (the Pendleton-De Luz planning area does not have a planning or sponsor group).

The Department of Parks and Recreation was not required to bring the fee increase proposal before the county’s Planning Commission, but the department opted to bring the new fee schedule to the Planning Commission for input. “We wanted to have them have the opportunity to weigh in on it if they wanted to,” Albright said.

The December 15 Planning Commission hearing also allowed for additional public comment. Bill Jenkin, the chair of the Ramona Community Planning Group, suggested that the increase be phased in over a six-year implementation period rather than the three-year period proposed (the Ramona Community Planning Group was one of the 11 planning and sponsor groups to take a position against the department’s proposal). Rick Landavazo, who represented the Parks Advisory Committee, spoke in favor of the increase. Planning Commissioner Bryan Woods, who lives in Ramona, commented that the increases were undesirable but necessary.

Although the Planning Commission’s comments were advisory only, the hearing was the final phase before submittal to the Board of Supervisors for consideration. “I guess it’s a big step,” Albright said.

The current PLDO ordinance has three different fee classifications. Area 1, which covers only the San Dieguito local park planning area (including Rancho Santa Fe), has a PLDO fee of $1,000 per dwelling unit. Area 2 covers park planning areas, including Bonsall, Fallbrook, and Pauma, and currently carries an $800 fee per dwelling unit. The fee for Area 3 is currently set at $400 per unit; that area covers the Anza Borrego, Mountain Empire, and Palomar/Julian park planning areas.

Under the new fees each of the county’s 24 park planning areas will have a separate fee based on the cost of land acquisition. “The greatest single factor that impacts the difference in cost throughout these communities is the value of land, undeveloped developable land,” Albright said.

Because of the scope of the increases, the proposal would phase the increases over a three-year period, and in an effort to prevent the fees from needing to be raised so significantly in the future an annual inflation escalator based on the cost of construction cited in the Engineering News Record but capped at a maximum three percent annual increase is also proposed. The fees per dwelling unit at the end of the phase-in would range from $6,974 in San Dieguito to $2,684 in Anza-Borrego, not including the annual inflation escalator.

The second-highest fee, at $6,918, would be for development in Lincoln Acres. “Lincoln Acres is almost entirely built out,” Albright said.

That would necessitate the purchase of developed land in Lincoln Acres (which is between National City and Chula Vista) in order to provide the necessary park land. “That’s always costly,” Albright said.

In the Fallbrook park planning area, which also includes Rainbow and De Luz, the $800 fee would increase to $1,900 in the first year, $3,001 plus the inflation escalator in the second year, and $4,102 plus the inflation escalator in the third year. The $800 fee in the Bonsall park planning area would increase to $1,866 for the first year, $2,932 plus inflation for the second year, and $3,999 plus inflation for the third year. The Pauma area fee would increase from $800 to $1,986 in the first year, $3,173 plus inflation for the second year, and $4,360 plus inflation for the third year.

The Park Land Dedication Ordinance was initially adopted by the Board of Supervisors in January 1973. PLDO fees can only be used for active recreation parks and not for open space or trails. The fees can be used for acquisition of land but not for maintenance or operations, and they can be used for replacement of playground equipment or other renovations but not for restoration of historic structures. Fees collected in a local park planning area must be spent in that park planning area.