City Council Deadlocks on Development Fees

The prospect of imposing development fees in urbanized areas of San Diego brought protests from Mission Valley builders that such fees would kill their major projects and left the City Council deadlocked on the issue Tuesday.

The council agreed to continue the matter until July 20 after failing to obtain a five-vote majority for a resolution imposing fees on all new development in 13 established San Diego neighborhoods.

The resolution called for “impact fees” to be assessed on all commercial, residential and industrial building in Golden Hill, North Park, Linda Vista, Mid City, Navajo, Pacific Beach, Peninsula, Skyline/Paradise Hills, Southeast San Diego, Uptown and Mission Valley community plan areas.

Currently, only fringe communities, where urban services such as parks, libraries, streets and fire stations are not in place, are assessed development fees. Recently, a surge in “infilling,”--development within established neighborhoods--has occurred, taxing the capacity of streets and other urban services.

The amounts charged under the proposed fee structures ranged widely. For residential construction, for example, developers in the Skyline/Paradise Hills area would be assessed $770 per unit. In North Park, the assessment would be $1,195 per unit, while in Pacific Beach, it would cost a developer $2,150 per housing unit. Under the proposal, the most expensive area for residential builders would be Mission Valley, at $4,290 per dwelling.

Mayor Maureen O’Connor and Councilman Ed Struiksma teamed up Tuesday in an attempt to gain approval of the fees.

But, with two members absent, the council voted 4-3 to approve the measure--one vote short of passage.

Spokesmen for several major Mission Valley projects, including a Marriott Hotel and commercial/residential projects along the San Diego River between California 163 and Interstate 805, warned that their projects would be scrapped if additional fees proposed in the resolution were imposed.

Voting for imposition of the fees were O’Connor, Struiksma, Judy McCarty and Abbe Wolfsheimer. Opposing it were Celia Ballesteros, Bill Cleator and William Jones.

Gloria McColl and Mike Gotch were absent.