Taxes : County Urges Builders’ Levy for Firehouses

Los Angeles County officials, saying they need money to deal with a future shortage of fire stations in fast-growing unincorporated areas, have proposed taxing developers for every house and commercial facility built in those areas.

The plan, presented to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, would add $471 to the cost of building a 2,000-square-foot house. The recommended fee would be slightly more than 2 cents for each square foot of floor space.

The development fee would be restricted to construction in the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys, as well as Malibu and the Santa Monica Mountains corridor. The money would be used only for fire stations in those areas.

Without discussion, the board set June 21 as the date for a public hearing on the plan, which was written by the county’s Fire and Public Works departments.

The assessment, which would generate $33 million in the next five years, is needed to build 17 fire stations in that period, said Michael Freeman, the county’s fire chief. The extra revenue also would be used to build an additional 33 stations that are expected to be needed by the year 2010.

Freeman said conventional methods of paying for new stations are inadequate because of rapid growth in outlying areas. Without more money, Freeman said, development would have to be curtailed, fire protection would diminish or taxpayers in other parts of the county would have to subsidize the construction of fire stations.

Because the alternatives would be worse, Freeman said, the building industry has not opposed the plan.