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BUSD adopts goals and policies for community facilities districts

Joe Naiman

Village News Reporter

The Bonsall Unified School District now has goals and policies for community facilities districts.

A 5-0 BUSD board vote April 20 approved the goals and policies. The goals and policies will provide guidelines to assist interested parties in determining the school district’s approach to financing school facilities projects.

“We continue to explore and do our very best to bring valuable resources to our students,” said BUSD superintendent Joseph Clevenger.

A community facilities district allows bonds for infrastructure to be repaid through assessments on property (these are sometimes known as Mello-Roos taxes due to the state legislators who authored the option for services on new development to be funded by an annual assessment). An assessment must be approved by a majority of property owners, although a developer who owns an undeveloped parcel may vote in favor of the CFD and once the property is subdivided those property owners are responsible for the assessments.

The CFD financing can cover capacity and connection fees paid to acquire capacity into the existing system as well as infrastructure expenses themselves including new facilities and expansion, modification, rehabilitation, or other improvements to existing facilities.

If the one percent property tax does not cover county or district services needed for the development a CFD may be created with a perpetual assessment. A CFD for infrastructure or capacity fees will be dissolved after the long-term payments for those are completed. The property tax assessment would be paid to the San Diego County Treasurer-Tax Collector before being disbursed, so county Board of Supervisors approval will be required due to the county’s involvement.

“It’s a good opportunity to leverage and maximize the benefits for students based on new housing,” Clevenger said.

The Jan. 19 BUSD board meeting discussed a potential community facilities district for a project called The Havens and approved a professional services agreement for financial services, advice, negotiations, and assistance with the potential formation of the CFD. The proposed CFD for The Havens will also include financing for Rainbow Municipal Water District infrastructure and capacity fees.

The BUSD goals and policies for a CFD include priorities for financing, credit quality requirements for bond issuance, disclosure requirements to prospective property purchasers, equity of special tax formulas, maximum special taxes, appraisal standards, priority attendance access policies, applications and deposits, minimum standards, waivers, and amendments.

 

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