Almaden Resident

News

Developers to pay higher fees to help city add more open space

By Monica Heger

Developers will have to pay higher fees to help San Jose increase its parkland beginning February.

In a unanimous vote that elicited applause from the audience, the San Jose City Council approved adjustments to the fees developers pay for parks.

"The proposed changes have unprecedented unified support from the planning commission, the housing advisory commission and numerous community groups," said Helen Chapman, chairwoman of the San Jose Parks and Recreation Commission.

Almaden Valley Youth Soccer League members were among those who showed up in number to support the fee increase. The league collected 1,500 signatures from league parents who support the fee increase.

"We are totally in back of the fees being raised," Terry Thompson, the president of the Almaden Valley Youth Soccer League, said.

This year the league will be turning kids away because of a lack of fields, Frank Ross told the council.

The fees developers pay for parks are currently based on land values from 2001 and are only 70 percent of that land value. The fees will now be set at 100 percent of 2005 land values. Land values have gone up across the city since 2001. In Almaden Valley, land values increased from $31.50 per square foot in 2001 to $45 per square foot in 2005. So, for a single-family home in Almaden Valley, developers' fees will increase from $14,150 to $20,400.

Developers are required either to dedicate three acres of land for parkland per 1,000 residents or pay in-lieu fees, which are collected into a park trust fund and used either to buy space for parks or to make improvements to existing parks.

Exemptions to the park fee include a 50 percent reduction for the first 2,500 units in downtown high-rises greater than 12 stories and housing for very low- and extremely low-income families. Also, projects in the pipeline will be grandfathered in under the old fees. Projects have until July 1 to obtain permits for eligibility under the old fees, and the projects have until Jan. 1, 2009, to pay the fees.

The parkland dedication and park impact ordinances will also be revised. Key changes to the ordinances include allowing park trust fund money to be used for trails and schools and allowing credit to be given for private recreational facilities. Recreational facilities that serve as storm-water detention will be given credit. An example of a dual-use recreational facility and storm-water detention site would be a baseball field whose outfield is used for storm-water detention during the rainy season but can be played on during the summer.

The new ordinances will allow greater flexibility for developers to meet the requirements by using combinations of land dedication and in-lieu fees. The minimum parcel size of land that can be dedicated as parkland is a half-acre.

The only opposition came from the homebuilders association, which was worried the July deadline for getting a permit under the old fees was too soon.

Council members, however, decided the July deadline gave builders sufficient time.

More than 25 people from the community, many who represented the group Citizens for a Livable San Jose, spoke in favor of the ordinance.

"We all know we can't create more land once parkland is sold," Kathy Sutherland, a CalSJ member, said. "Once parkland is sold and developed, it can never be parkland."

The revised ordinances will be come back to the council in December for final approval and then go into effect in February.