SAN CLEMENTE : City Will Phase Out Fire Services Fees

With one councilman describing it as one of the most “unfair” fees he’s ever seen, the City Council voted this week to phase out a fire and emergency services assessment affecting about 400 homeowners.

The fee was adopted in 1988 for new homes built in an area in and around Rancho San Clemente that is more than five minutes away from the nearest fire station, thereby violating the Fire Department’s regulation for a five-minute maximum response to emergency calls. The fee generates about $160,000 annually for the city.

About 400 homeowners in the Rancho San Clemente, Forster Ranch and Marblehead developments have signed contracts in which they pay up to $200 per year for fire services, while business owners in those areas pay 15 cents per square foot, officials said.

Rather than face a building moratorium, developers at the time agreed to the assessment fee to help the Fire Department improve its services for the new homes and businesses.

In some neighborhoods, older homeowners pay the fee while newer neighbors do not, City Manager Michael W. Parness said. Through the years, many have complained that it is unfair for a small group of property owners to pay special fees for a whole area, especially since many in Rancho San Clemente now live within five minutes of a new fire station.

Council members agreed that the fee should go. “I think this assessment is the most patently unfair process I’ve seen in government,” Councilman Truman Benedict said. “I can’t believe it’s going on.”

Benedict cast the lone vote against a three-year phaseout of the fee, saying he’d rather eliminate it immediately.

But other council members, while agreeing the fee should go, said the city was not in the financial position to completely cut the revenue.

Starting July 1, the fee will be reduced by 33% each year until it is eliminated, which means the city will lose about $53,300 in the coming fiscal year.

Until the phaseout is complete, Fire Chief Jim W. Knight told the council that the city will “aggressively” try to collect back fees left unpaid by homeowners.

“To be equal, as long as it is in place, we’re going to make sure everyone pays,” Parness said.