Tollways’ Building Fees Hiked Up to 64%

Faced with ballooning costs, Orange County’s tollway agencies Thursday hiked the fees developers must pay along three planned toll routes by as much as 64%, potentially raising the price of new houses.

The interim fee increases, approved by the boards of the county’s Transportation Corridor Agencies, take effect immediately and are expected to last until the middle of 1990 pending new tollway cost estimates. The fee hikes come 5 1/2 months after a smaller adjustment due to inflation went into effect July 1. Tollway officials earlier this year pegged costs for the three tollways at more than $2 billion.

No builders testified against the fee increases Thursday, but San Juan Capistrano Mayor Gary L. Hausdorfer said there were rumbles of dissent when individual city councils met recently to ratify the new charges.

The new fees are $2,327 apiece for single-family residences close to the Foothill and Eastern tollway routes, up from the current $1,417. Residences near the San Joaquin Hills tollway route carry new fees of $2,023, up from $1,429.

The three tollways are financed 48.5% by developer fees, with the rest coming from the sale of bonds backed by anticipated toll revenue and state and federal grants. As costs rise, however, developer fees go up in order to maintain the developers’ 48.5% level of contribution.

The San Joaquin Hills tollway will link the John Wayne Airport area with San Juan Capistrano through the coastal mountains. The Eastern tollway will extend from the Riverside Freeway near the Riverside County border to Irvine through the Santa Ana Mountains. The Foothill tollway will link the Eastern tollway with Interstate 5 near San Clemente, through the hills near Rancho Santa Margarita.

All three tollways are expected to be completed in the mid 1990s.

Also Thursday, the Transportation Corridor Agencies awarded more than $11 million in final design and engineering contracts for the first toll road segment, a 7.3-mile stretch of the Foothill tollway near Rancho Santa Margarita. Construction is scheduled to start in early 1991.

In addition, the corridor agencies approved a $250,000 contract with the Orange County Natural History Museum to preserve and display prehistoric archeological and paleontological material expected to be uncovered during grading and construction of the tollways.