County raises PLDO fees

The Park Land Dedication Ordinance fees paid by developers to fund park facilities in the development’s community will be increased effective April 20.

A 4-1 decision of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, with Supervisor Dianne Jacob casting the vote of opposition, increases the fees to reflect current acquisition and construction costs. The PLDO fees had not been revised since 1986, and the county’s Department of Parks and Recreation prepared a new fee structure to reflect the increased cost of land and construction over two decades.

“I’m very pleased that it passed. This will be a great thing,” said Brian Albright, the assistant director of the Department of Parks and Recreation.

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 funding from other sources may allow local agencies to establish higher standards. Currently the unincorporated Oceanside area is the only park planning area in which the county is meeting the standard of three acres 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.

“It’s been 21 years since there’s been an adjustment,” said Supervisor Greg Cox. “I think this is long overdue.”

In 1986 the median home price in San Diego County was $120,000. “We all know what the value of property has done over the past 20 years,” said Supervisor Pam Slater-Price.

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. The Department of Parks and Recreation also took the proposed fee increases to the county’s Planning Commission for input, although the increase was not required to be brought before the Planning Commission. Altogether more than 50 meetings with various community groups and other organizations were held.

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 fee structure each of the county’s 24 park planning areas will have a separate fee based on the cost of land acquisition. While the three-year phase-in period will lessen the scope of the increases to some extent, in an effort to prevent the fees from needing to be raised so significantly in the future an annual inflation escalator will be used based on the cost of construction cited in the Engineering News Record but capped at a maximum three percent annual increase. At the end of the phase-in period the fees would range from $6,974 in San Dieguito to $2,684 in Anza-Borrego, not including the annual inflation escalator.

In the Fallbrook park planning area, which also includes Rainbow and De Luz, the $800 fee will 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 will 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 for the first year, $3,173 plus inflation for the second year, and $4,360 plus inflation for the third year.

The Parks Advisory Committee voted unanimously to support the proposed fee increases while the Building Industry Association chose not to take a position. Six community planning or sponsor groups, including the Rainbow Community Planning Group, took no official position on the proposal while nine planning groups, including the Fallbrook Community Planning Group and the Bonsall and Pala-Pauma sponsor groups, officially supported the increases and 11 planning groups took positions against the specific proposal (the opposing groups included the Ramona Community Planning Group, whose chairman suggested a six-year phase-in period rather than the three-year implementation during the Planning Commission hearing in December).

The Pendleton-De Luz planning area does not have a planning or sponsor group but is part of County Service Area No. 81, which provides park services for Fallbrook, De Luz, Rainbow, and a portion of Bonsall.

“It’s absurd that we only charge $800 in our area for the type of open space that we really need,” said Margarette Morgan, the chair of the Bonsall Community Sponsor Group.

Part of the future San Luis Rey River Park will be in the Bonsall planning area, but currently a portion of Guajome Park is the only county park land in Bonsall. “We have no park in Bonsall. We are so looking forward to it,” Morgan said.

While the planning groups were divided, the advisory boards of all of the county service areas which address parks were in favor of the increases. “Parks are a pretty minor thing to many of the planning groups,” said Jim Bowen, who represented County Service Area No. 81 at the Board of Supervisors hearing.

The Fallbrook Community Planning Group actually supported an increase greater than that proposed by Department of Parks and Recreation staff. “Flat usable land in Fallbrook is much more costly than what the county’s estimates are,” said Carolyn Major, who represented the Fallbrook Community Planning Group at the hearing.

Major explained that the county’s estimates covered the entire park planning area, including De Luz and Rainbow. “Fallbrook has a limited time to collect these fees in order to create more parks,” she said.

Bonsall Sponsor Group vice-chair Chuck Davis told the supervisors that new development should pay for the acquisition of park land to serve an increasing number of residents. “The existing resident is not causing these problems,” he said.

“We need to have recreation areas for not only our children but our adults,” Cox said. “The fact that the building industry was not here to speak, either for or against, says volumes.”

Slater-Price felt that the reason the building industry didn’t oppose the fees was that park facilities increase market values of homes.

Supervisor Bill Horn put aside his opposition to fee increases. “I think this is an appropriate fee,” he said. “I think development needs to pay its way.”

Ten of the eleven community planning or sponsor groups taking positions against the increase are in Jacob’s supervisorial district (the exception was Borrego Springs); four District Two groups took no positions while the Spring Valley and Valle de Oro groups expressed support. “I agree with the need, but I just cannot support what’s before us today,” Jacob said. “It’s still way too much, too much too quick.”

Jacob noted that identification of park land should be a part of the county’s general plan update process, and she also noted that the cost of park maintenance – which cannot be funded through PLDO fees – needed to be addressed. “I do recognize there is a need to increase the funding,” she said. “There’s no question about the value to our young people and adults of all ages.”

Supervisor Ron Roberts noted that the issue of maintenance costs will be addressed in the future. “We simply want to acquire the lands,” he said.

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.

“We’ll continue to enhance our park facilities throughout the county,” said Department of Parks and Recreation director Renee Bahl.