Developers’ Tollway Fees May Increase by Early Fall

To ensure that developers foot a hefty share of the bill for Orange County’s three new tollways, officials planning the roads agreed Thursday to at least temporarily increase fees paid by builders.

Facing ballooning costs for construction of the tollways, the two agencies planning the routes voted unanimously to increase developers’ fees from about 47% to more than 70%.

The fee increases, which have irked some developers and could add further to sky-high home prices in Orange County, will not go into effect until leaders of the various cities along the routes also endorse the fee increases, probably by early fall.

In the meantime, officials with the San Joaquin and Foothill/Eastern transportation corridor agencies, the groups planning the $2-billion tollways, will continue to study long-term fee increases they hope to have in place by next year.

Officials said they are concerned that contributions from developers could dip from the target of nearly 50% of total tollway costs to around 20%, even as projected construction expenses have been escalating faster than inflation.

Tollway agency officials indicated a particular urgency to pushing through the temporary hike, as new homes continue to sprout in southern and eastern Orange County at a dizzying pace.

“This is a particularly important item,” said San Juan Capistrano Mayor Gary L. Hausdorfer, chairman of the agency planning the Foothill and Eastern tollways. “But it’s important to realize this is an interim increase. It’s not final.”

While the fees along the San Joaquin route originally ranged from $1,062 to $1,372 for a single-family home depending on its proximity to the highway, the interim hike will raise a builder’s cost to between $1,566 and $2,023. Along the Foothill and Eastern corridors, the previous fees for a single-family home ranged from $967 to $1,360, but will rise to between $1,655 to $2,327 under the new plan.

The agencies also increased fees for multiple-family projects and commercial developments near the planned tollways.

Although no builders spoke out against the temporary fee increase during the agencies’ meetings Thursday, some developers have expressed concern that they were being charged extra to help pay financing costs for the three road projects. Estimates of financing have ranged as high as $1 billion.

But some major developers say that the tremendous need for road alternatives to help ease congestion on the region’s traffic-choked freeways justifies the steep fee hikes.

Diane Gaynor, a spokeswoman for the Santa Margarita Co., developers of the 5,000-acre Rancho Santa Margarita planned community in the foothills of south Orange County, said the firm supports the hike because officials “recognize that the costs to build roads have increased. . . . It’s a reality today.”

In a separate move Thursday, the San Joaquin tollway agency voted unanimously to include a proposed new road design in upcoming environmental reviews of the 14-mile tollway linking Newport Beach and San Juan Capistrano.

The new proposal calls for commuter trains in the median strip as well as Orange County’s first reversible car-pool lanes, which would route cars in either direction depending on traffic. It will be studied along with an existing proposal for a 10-lane tollway along the corridor.