School District Adopts Building Fees

School construction fees on new residential and commercial buildings in Santa Ana became effective Wednesday under a resolution passed by the Santa Ana Unified School District, the district announced.

The fees will help the school district, which is suffering from serious overcrowding, build new elementary and high schools.

The school district board, by unanimous vote, on Tuesday night unanimously adopted the fees of $1.50 per square foot on new residences and 25 cents per square foot on new commercial construction.

Santa Ana Unified joined hundreds of other school districts across the state that already have passed such implementing resolutions.

The fees were made possible by a state law that took effect Jan. 1 permitting school districts, for the first time, to levy direct fees on new construction. Previously, school districts could only request that special fees for construction of new schools be imposed either by city councils or county boards of supervisors.

The California Building Industry Assn. has opposed implementation of the new construction fees in some school districts, but no industry officials protested the fees Tuesday night, said Diane Thomas, public information officer for Santa Ana Unified. “One realtor spoke, but she mainly just had questions,” Thomas said. “Another person, a representative of the community, spoke in favor of the fees.”

Thomas said Santa Ana Unified, which has grown by about 1,000 new students every year for the past decade, is in dire need of new school construction. “Santa Ana Unified has one of the most urgent needs for new school construction of any district in the state,” she said.

While some districts are not levying the full amount of fees authorized by the new law, Thomas said the school district had no choice but to impose the maximum. She said a section of the new law requires school districts to provide some matching fund for school construction, and the only way the district has of raising money is by full imposition of the fees.