Conejo Schools Cut Fees for Apartment Projects

The Conejo Valley Unified School Board on Wednesday night granted some relief from new developer fees to three apartment projects that will include units for low-income residents.

The board stopped short, however, of fully exempting the builders from a new, higher fee structure designed to raise money for school construction.

Instead, the board voted unanimously to exempt only a percentage of units in each project, based on the the number set aside for low-incomes persons.

Developers of three apartment projects totaling 576 units had asked to pay the lower fees now in effect. But the board granted them the relief only for the 107 units designed for low-income people. The remaining units will be charged under a fee schedule that goes into effect Jan. 1.

Two of the projects are being build by Bibo Inc., a Camarillo-based developer. A representative of Bibo said in November that the company might not be able to afford to build its planned 408 apartment units unless the school board offered a break on sharply rising school construction fees.

Under the motion passed Wednesday night, Bibo will be allowed to pay the current fee on 82 of the units.

Developers now pay fees averaging $700 on a single-family home. Under the new fee schedule, which is based on the square footage of new housing, developers will pay $3,000 for a 2,000-square-foot home, and more as the square footage increases.

Fees for the two Bibo projects would be less than $35,000 under the old fee schedule, but will increase by at least $100,000 under the new plan.

Thousand Oaks Mayor Frank Schillo, saying he was acting as a private citizen and not as an official, requested in a letter to the school board last month that the new fees be reduced or waived for developers who build low-income housing.

“Although the district does not have a mandated responsibility in the area of affordable housing, I believe that local schools will indirectly suffer . . . by the lack of affordable housing,” Schillo wrote.

Schillo told board members last month that four projects that would add a total of about 600 “affordable” apartments might be be abandoned unless the board gives those developers a discount on the fees. City officials estimate that the vacancy rate in the city’s approximately 3,600 apartments is less than than 3%, and say there is a great need for housing.

Growing Student Population

The school district, faced with a growing student population, took advantage of a state law enabling local districts to charge developers up to $1.50 a square foot on new homes to pay for construction of schools to accommodate the families that move into the new housing.

Developers are now charged a much lower fee based on the location of the new home, the number of bedrooms and the crowding in nearby schools.

The school district expects to collect about $41 million in construction fees over the next 15 to 30 years, and to use the money to refurbish existing schools and build new ones, according to Mel Roop, the district’s director of planning and facilities. Planned for construction in coming years are two elementary schools and one high school, and officials also plan to add portable classrooms to some campuses, he said.

The school district lies almost entirely within Thousand Oaks, which is experiencing its first growth in school-age population since the mid-1970s. District officials expect enrollment to reach 21,000 students by the end of the century, up from the early 1980s, when enrollment dipped below 17,000.