PLACENTIA : Income From Fees Reduced by Slump

Placentia Unified School District officials have greatly reduced their estimates of income from developer fees for this year because of the dramatic slowdown in home building in the past six months.

School officials expect to collect about $415,000 by June 30, the end of the fiscal year, said Kim Stallings, the district’s assistant superintendent for business services. Earlier estimates projected that the district would collect about $2.3 million in developer fees.

The fees are charged to developers when they take out construction permits, and are used to buy land for schools, pay for new school construction and for some school renovations and expansions. So far this year, the district has collected about $340,000 in developer’s fees.

“The growth now has slowed down to a crawl,” Supt. James O. Fleming said at a school board meeting last week.

During the 1989-90 year, the school district collected almost $2 million in developer’s fees, Stallings said.

But housing development “is now so spotty it (fee revenue) is a difficult thing to project,” Stallings said. “We have to slow down our original schedule.”

While the district will be able to complete current building projects, such as the construction of permanent facilities at the Travis Ranch School in Yorba Linda, they say that they will have to postpone other projects, including construction of a new elementary school on North Fairmont Boulevard.

School board trustees urged Stallings to keep the new Fairmont school a top priority, noting overcrowding at Fairmont Elementary School in east Yorba Linda.

“We need to look at other sites to house our children,” Goodman said. “They may be coming in at a slower rate, but (the school is) still bulging.”

The board had directed staff to acquire a site on North Fairmont Boulevard last year, but negotiations are still continuing.