Special Board Meeting for September 21, 2004

1. Public Hearing Resolution 04-3905 Approval of Establishing School Facility Fees and Making Related Findings and Determinations

Background: Beginning in 1986 AB2926 granted school district governing boards the authority to levy developer fees for residential and commercial/industrial construction. In 1998, SB50 made major changes in the State School Building Program as well as the level of permissible school fees for school districts in California.

Upon meeting applicable legal requirements and completing a School Facility Needs Analysis school districts can levy fees based on certain levels.

The governing board has made a timely application to the State Allocation Board (SAB) for new construction funding for which it is eligible and is determined by SAB to meet the eligibility requirements for new construction. An application is deemed eilgible if the SAB fails to notify the district within 120 days of receipt of the application. And, consistent with the report prepared by the Coalition for Adequate School Housing (CASH) Legal Advisory Committee, the only application referred to in Section 65995.5(b)(1) is SAN 50-03 which is used to request the eligibility determination based on the information in Forms SAB 50-01 and SAB 50-02.

The District has also satsified two of the four Statutory Requirments in Government Code Section 65995.5(b): 1) The held a General Obligation Bond election in March 2004 with an approval rate of 71.9% and, 2) the District issued debt in an amount exceeding 15% of its bonding capacity.

On August 20, 2004 teh Board of Education received a School Facilities Needs Analysis report. Based on determinations consistent with Section 65995.5 and 65995.7, the study finds that the District is justified in establishing Level II fees of $3.76 of assessable space of residental construction and Level III fees of $7.52 per square foot of assessable space of residental construction applicable as permitted by law after such time as the State Allocation Board is no longer apportioning funds to school districts for new construction.

In oral communications from the Warmington Homes project manager he indicated that the School Facilities Needs Analysis was deficient in a number of areas. First, they challenged the conclusion in the Study that the District does not have excess capacity to house students from new construction. Second, they contend the District should include other funding sources. Third, they contend the District has surplus property. Fourth, they contended that old East Housing previousily had students so the new students from Bayport should be counted. They urged the Board to not pass the resolution.

Legal counsel for District then presented their views that answered the assetions presented by the project manager. Passage of the resolution could increase the amount of developer fees collected by over $1,500,000 should the District prevail in most certainly appears to be a matter to be resolved in the courts.

The Board approved the resoution with a 5-0 vote.

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Last modified: September 22, 2004

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