Supervisors Reject Plea for Schools Fee on Developers

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday rejected a proposal by five Santa Clarita Valley school districts that the county impose temporary fees on residential building permits to help them pay for new schools.

School officials in the fast-growing area asked the county to collect fees averaging $6,000 per residential unit for each building permit taken out until Jan. 1. They said they fear developers will rush to get building permits before the end of the year to avoid state and local levies, designed to finance new schools, that go into effect then.

Although it rejected the fee request, the board adopted a compromise motion by Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who represents the Santa Clarita Valley, to speed up action on the districts’ applications for county funds available to school districts suffering from crowding.

Board Chairman Pete Schabarum scolded administrators from the Hart, Newhall, Saugus and Sulphur Springs school districts because they only recently applied for the county money, but commended the Castaic district, which has been collecting the county aid for the last two years.

The Hart, Newhall, Saugus and Sulphur Springs districts lacked foresight and are “a day late, a dollar short and they’re asking the Board of Supervisors to bail them out,” Schabarum said.

Did Not Meet Criteria

Terry Dixon, an attorney representing the school districts, said the four districts did not apply for the county funds before this school term because they did not meet the county’s criteria for crowding.

School administrators proposed the county fees as an interim measure, he said, pending the imposition of fees on residential construction that were authorized by state legislation effective Jan. 1.

By quickly obtaining building permits, developers also could avoid paying taxes, averaging $6,000 on each new residential unit, that will be imposed in the Santa Clarita Valley districts if approved by voters there Nov. 4.

Castaic Supt. Reed Montgomery said an average of seven building permits cross his desk weekly but that this week, “all of a sudden, I had 124. That worried me a little.”

Montgomery said the funds he has collected from the county provide about one-third the amount he needs to provide classrooms for new students.

Under the county’s program to help crowded schools, districts receive $669 for each new two-bedroom housing unit and $1,339 for each three-bedroom residence.

Under state legislation, which allows fees equaling $1.50 for each square foot of residential construction, the districts would receive $1,800 for a 1,200-square-foot home, the average size of two-bedroom units being built in the area, Dixon said.

“It’s better than nothing,” he said. “But it’s a lot less money.”