SIMI VALLEY : Plan to Assess Fees on Builders Called Bad for Business

Simi Valley business leaders said a proposal by the school district to assess fees on developers would severely damage the city’s economic development.

The school board is scheduled to discuss the issue at its meeting Tuesday.

Nancy Bender, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce, said the fees, which the district would use to pay for new construction and repairs, would drive up housing prices and discourage businesses from locating in the city.

In February, the school board commissioned a study to determine whether the district could legally assess developer fees.

State law allows school districts to charge residential developers $1.58 per square foot and commercial developers 26 cents per square foot if the districts can show that the development projects create a need for more schools.

The money can be used only for new construction and renovation of existing buildings.

School board members said last week that the district has the right to impose the fees but were reluctant to comment further.

“I think we will probably hold a couple of hearings before we make a decision,” board member Ken Ashton said.

Officials with the Simi Valley-Moorpark Board of Realtors and the Building Industry Assn. for Los Angeles and Ventura counties said they oppose the fees because they will drive up housing prices.

Bender said fees for a typical 25,000-square-foot commercial building would be $6,500 and for an average 1,800-square-foot house $2,844.

Bender questioned why the district needs the fees when it has suffered from declining enrollment.

She also noted that Simi Valley voters approved a $35-million bond measure in 1989 to go toward renovation of many district buildings.

However, Ashton said the district’s enrollment, now at 18,200, has leveled off and is projected to increase slightly.

He added that several school districts in the county, Conejo Valley and Moorpark among them, already assess developer fees.