Council OKs Sylmar Panel

The Los Angeles City Council quietly set up a task force Wednesday to explore novel financing mechanisms, including imposition of fees on new development projects, to pay for expanding the lone library and fire station in fast-growing Sylmar.

Establishment of the task force, recommended by Councilman Ernani Bernardi, was approved on a 12-0 vote with no debate. The panel of city bureaucrats was charged with reporting back to a council panel chaired by Bernardi in 45 days.

“We’re just beginning to open the door to look at what can be done” to pay for badly needed public facilities in Sylmar with locally raised fees or taxes, said Bernardi, who represents the area. Developers now pay fees to fund local park acquisition and construction, “but we have nothing like that to pay for libraries, police or fire facilities,” Bernardi said. “I think it can be done.”

Sylmar, the city’s fastest-growing community since 1982, experienced 30.7% population growth during the 1980s, according to a recent city report.

David Mays, Bernardi’s chief deputy, said Sylmar’s Fire Station 91, located at Polk Street and Borden Avenue, is considered inadequate to handle the area’s safety needs. Likewise, the Sylmar library, a 5,500-square-foot facility at Polk Street and Glenoaks Boulevard, is less than half the desirable size, Mays said.

“We need these new facilities to catch up,” Mays said. The money probably cannot be raised through the city’s regular budget process, he said.

Bernardi’s office wants the task force to look at either paying for expanded facilities with developer fees or taxes raised under the state’s Mello-Roos Community Facilities Act of 1982. The Mello-Roos law has frequently been used to finance public facilities throughout the state, but never in the city of Los Angeles, according to city budget officials.

Richard Wirth, executive director of the political arm of the state Building Industry Assn., said increased developer fees are not only unfair but difficult to impose.

“To expect the new developer and new consumers to pay for everything is ludicrous. Why should they pay when others also benefit?” Wirth asked. State law also requires that before such fees can be imposed, government agencies must prove the new development creates the need for additional facilities.

For new taxes to be imposed under the Mello-Roos law, two-thirds of the voters or property owners in an area must approve creation of a special tax district, which issues bonds that are paid off by higher property taxes.

Several major new developments are on the drawing boards in Sylmar that could be affected by a new fee or tax proposal, Mays said. They include the Sunset Farms project, a 2-million-square-foot business park with possibly as many as 80 homes, and Carey Ranch, a proposal to build 350 homes.

Sunset Farms attorney Mark Armbruster said his client has already agreed not to oppose any new taxes or fees to pay for expanding Sylmar’s library or fire station.