Council Boosts Subsidy to Buy Canyons, but Money Is Still the Problem

The San Diego City Council has decided to increase the amount it will pay to subsidize private homeowners’ efforts to buy and preserve canyons.

The council voted unanimously Monday to increase its subsidy from 25% to 50% of the purchase price for residents hoping to buy canyons considered by the city to be the most significant in San Diego. Public subsidies for canyons judged less desirable were increased from 15% to 30% of the purchase price in some cases, and from 10% to 25% in others.

But city administrators say that, despite the increased public commitment, the city has only $100,000 set aside for the subsidies, and no money is earmarked for subsidies in its next fiscal year.

The earliest the council plans to fund the increased subsidies is in July, 1986, when it hopes to set aside $500,000 for that purpose, said Wilbur Smith, deputy director of park development and open space.

Councilman Dick Murphy said the council action is aimed at reviving the city’s dormant “assessment district” program, which allows homeowners living near canyons to essentially tax themselves to buy the land for open space.

The program enjoyed some popularity in the 1970s when residents--without any city subsidy at all --formed assessment districts to pay for canyons that were being threatened with development.

For instance, residents won the right in 1974 to tax themselves for $1.3 million to buy 850 acres of Tecolote Canyon in Clairemont, the first such assessment district purchase made. Homeowners paid a one-time tax of either $775 or $155, depending on whether they lived along the canyon.

Since the mid-1970s--especially since taxpayers revolted and passed Proposition 13--local residents have been unwilling or unable to tax themselves to save canyons. Two-thirds of the people living within the boundaries of a designated assessment district must agree to the tax before it can be enacted.

To help boost interest in the program, the council decided in 1981 to chip in 25% of the purchase price if the residents paid for the rest. But even then, there were no takers.

“The program hasn’t been utilized up until now because there hasn’t been that much in (subsidy) funding, and, secondly, the cost of land in San Diego has skyrocketed where it is very difficult for residents in a community to save a canyon, particularly when it is under a threat of development,” Smith said.

He said residents first express interest in an assessment district when they learn that a developer has plans to build in a canyon. By that time, particularly when a developer has won approval for maps of his project, land prices have increased to the point that two-thirds of the residents are unwilling to approve the high one-time tax, even with the former 25% subsidy.

Murphy said the city’s action Monday is an attempt to solve that problem.

“I believe that by the city offering to pay 50% of the cost, that it will encourage the two-thirds of the people (in an area) to sign the (assessment district) petition,” he said.

But if the promise of an increased subsidy brings in proposals for more assessment districts, the city may not have enough money to back up its commitment. The $100,000 earmarked for subsidies this year will disappear into another budget category July 1, and there is no money set aside after that, said Smith.

Mayor Roger Hedgecock conceded that the council would be strapped if homeowners decided to take the council up on its latest subsidy offer. “Where would we get the money?” he said.

The assessment district program has been a virtually useless tool in recent years. By far, the most important tool has been $65 million in bond money, approved by voters in 1978 to buy land outright.

The city has spent $45 million plus interest to buy more than 3,100 acres of canyons and open space. Included in those figures was $1.85 million taken from the bond money to reimburse residents around Tecolote Canyon, Navajo Canyon, and Crest Canyon near Del Mar for earlier private purchases through assessment districts.

But the bond program has become bogged down. The city has yet to spend $20 million of the money, and fiscal considerations dictate that it will not become available until 1986. Earlier estimates had indicated that $10 million of the remaining money would become available in April.

Murphy said he hoped that a revived assessment district program would move homeowners to buy the smaller, inner-city canyons that would otherwise be left vulnerable to development because the city doesn’t have enough bond money to buy them outright.