Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma

Fire mitigation fee rates unchanged

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors accepted the Fire Mitigation Fee Review Committee's annual report for fiscal year 2018-19 and found that the participating fire agencies were in conformance with the County Fire Mitigation Fee Ordinance, but a planned increase was deferred.

The supervisors' 5-0 vote Sept. 15 maintained the existing fee schedule, approved the resolution for capital expenditures for the fire mitigation fee revenue, and accepted the Fire Mitigation Fee Review Committee's annual report for fiscal year 2018-19.

The fire mitigation fee for non-agricultural construction had originally been scheduled to increase from 58 cents per square foot to 75 cents per square foot, but due to the hardship on businesses the coronavirus shutdown has caused a fee increase was deemed inappropriate.

The fire mitigation fee is paid by developers to fund the cost of fire department facilities serving the new development. The county established the Fire Mitigation Fee Program in 1986 to provide funding for fire protection and emergency medical services in the unincorporated communities.

Although local fire agencies lack the legal authority to impose mitigation fees on new development, the county collects a fee from building permit applicants on behalf of 13 independent fire protection districts and one county service area with fire protection responsibility.

The mitigation fees are distributed quarterly to agency accounts and must be used for capital projects or to purchase firefighting equipment or supplies which will serve new developments.

The Fire Mitigation Fee Review Committee reviews the annual reports of the participating agencies to confirm that the improvements are necessary to serve new development. The committee members consist of two fire chiefs (currently Fred Cox of the Rancho Santa Fe Fire Protection District and Joe Napier of the Valley Center Fire Protection District), one elected director of a fire protection district (currently Ken Munson of the North County Fire Protection District), one County Service Area staff member (currently vacant), one San Diego County Fire Authority staff member (currently Liz Johnson), and one representative apiece from the Building Industry Association (currently Matt Adams), the San Diego County Farm Bureau (currently executive director Hannah Gbeh), and the county's Planning Commission (currently David Pallinger).

The County Fire Mitigation Fee Ordinance allows fee ceilings to be increased or decreased in proportion to changes in the Cost of Construction Index. The ordinance also requires an evaluation of the base fee every five years based upon dividing the average cost in current dollars to construct a fully-equipped fire station within the county's unincorporated area by the average square footage of structures served by that average fire station. That result becomes the new base fee and was last adjusted in October 2014 and thus became effective for the 2015-16 fees.

In 2015, the estimated average cost to construct a new fire station was $322 per square foot. The updated estimated average cost to build a new fire station including permits is $5,269,250 and the average size of the 18 most recent fire stations is 5,600 square feet, which creates an average cost of $941 square foot.

The average fire station serves 2,934 dwelling units, so the cost per dwelling unit is $1,796 and based on the average new dwelling unit size of 2,400 square feet the average cost for a new fire station is $0.75 per square foot.

The Fire Mitigation Fee Review Committee had recommended an increase prior to the coronavirus outbreak. The proposed fee increase was withdrawn from the May 19 Board of Supervisors agenda, and the replacement proposal approved Sept. 16 accepts the annual report and spending plan but does not increase fees.

Even with the proposed increase for non-agricultural construction, the previous recommendation would not have increased the fees of 16 cents per square foot for agricultural buildings without sprinklers, two cents per square foot for agricultural buildings with fire sprinkler systems, and one cent per square foot for poultry and greenhouse buildings.

The North County Fire Protection District received $587,046.87 of Fire Mitigation Fee Program revenue in fiscal year 2018-19. The San Diego County Regional Fire Authority, whose area includes DeLuz, had $158,449.42 of mitigation fund revenue while the Vista Fire Protection District, which covers part of Bonsall as well as unincorporated Vista, collected $67,706.94.

Because the funding is used for capital improvements, it is not required to be spent in a particular fiscal year. The fiscal year 2020-21 planned capital expenditures approved by the Fire Mitigation Fee Review Committee include debt service payback for previous North County Fire Protection District capital expenses and construction of a new Vista Fire Protection District fire station.

Author Bio

Joe Naiman, Writer

Joe Naiman has been writing for the Village News since 2001

 

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