Ruling Praised by S.D. County, School Officials

San Diego County and school officials Thursday applauded a California Supreme Court decision that upheld a local school district’s right to charge developers special fees to build classrooms when home construction leads to school overcrowding.

The court’s ruling supports the right of the Grossmont Union High School District to force developers to contribute to the building of schools by charging them as much as $1,000 per single-family unit that they build. Dr. Jack Kriege, district superintendent for planning, research and development, said the fees are necessary to pay for construction of permanent buildings that are needed to ease classroom overcrowding in the area.

Candid Enterprises, developer of a Santee condominium project, sued after the company objected to $60,000 in fees charged by the district in 1978.

“We don’t like to do it (impose the fee), but Proposition 13 limited our ability to fund our schools. Really, this is the only alternative left to us,” Kriege said.

On Thursday, Kriege said he did not have figures readily available, but he estimated that in 1978 and 1979 the Grossmont Union High School District collected $2 million to $3 million in fees from developers. He said the district “temporarily” stopped collecting fees in 1980 when enrollment began to decline but started collecting them again in 1984. Since then, “about $500,000 to $700,000” has been collected from developers, Kriege said.

“The money has been used to build additional classrooms, remodel classrooms and to build a new gymnasium at Valhalla High School,” Kriege said.

Bill Taylor, an attorney with the San Diego County counsel’s office, said that local school districts are permitted to charge the fees because of a policy approved by the county Board of Supervisors. Taylor said the policy has been in effect since 1972 and applies in areas where the county has land-use authority. Other cities in the county, including San Diego and Chula Vista, have similar programs of their own.

“The problem was recognized in 1970, when the Mira Mesa development gave us the first clue of things to come. Mira Mesa was developed without schools, and suddenly we had thousands of kids living there with no schools to attend,” Taylor said.

Since 1972, the county has not approved a development unless the developer guarantees that he can contribute financing to provide for adequate schools, Taylor said.

Taylor estimated that since 1972 the county has entered into at least 5,000 agreements with developers for school financing. He said the county has collected “about $25 million” from developers since then and estimated that it will collect “twice that amount in outstanding contractual agreements.”

There are 43 school districts, including the Grossmont Union High School District, and five community college districts that fall under county jurisdiction.