Willow Glen Resident

News

Developers will pay more to build, helping provide 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.

"There will be many people in my district that are very happy with this," San Jose City Councilman Ken Yeager said before casting his vote.

"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.

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 Willow Glen, land values increased from $50 per square foot in 2001 to $70 per square foot in 2005. So, for a single-family house in Willow Glen, developers' fees will increase from $15,700 to $31,750.

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.

"Builders like parks," said Beverley Bryant, executive director for the southern division of the homebuilders association of Northern California. "Parks are good for San Jose, good for developers and good for our community."

However, she added the July 2007 deadline was too soon and asked that the deadline be extended to February 2008.

The extension would give builders already in the pipeline a chance to finish projects at the current rate, she said.

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.

"The support we have for these changes is overwhelming," Don Gagliardi, a CalSJ member said. "Residents across the city are speaking as one. We are one strong neighborhood."

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

Representatives from the Almaden Valley youth soccer leagues, which suffer from a lack of field space, also spoke in favor of the changes.

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

The league collected 1,500 signatures from league parents who support the fee increase.

"This year we will be turning kids away from our league because of a lack of fields," said Frank Ross, another member of the Almaden Valley Youth Soccer League.

The next step is for city staff to revise the ordinances to reflect the changes approved by the city council. The revised ordinances will be come back to the council in December for final approval and then go into effect in February.