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Campo board discusses PLDO development
fee increase
By Christy Scott
The Alpine Sun
CAMPO — The Campo-Lake Morena Planning
Group had a chance to weigh-in on a proposed fee increase on
development throughout the county. The San Diego Parks and
Recreation Department is proposing a major increase in fees for
the Park Land Dedication Ordinance, which charges developers who
apply for building permits in unincorporated parts of the
county.
PLDO fees are charged to developers in unincorporated
areas to mitigate some of the environmental impacts, by
providing money to be used for local parks. The county collects
the one-time fees and either uses the money directly for county
parks — with the advice of the local planning board — or teams
up with a local parks district or a school district.
The raise, which is 10 times the current fee in some
areas of the county, can be used for acquiring land or building
improvements such as playgrounds, ball fields and swimming
pools, according to Matt Bohan, parks department development
director.
In the Campo area, PLDO funds have been used recently
to revamp the playground behind the community center. In June of
last year, $165,000 of PLDO funds was allocated for this
project.
“Currently your fee out here is $400,” said parks
department representative Patrick McDonough to the Campo board
and residents. “The current proposal would raise that to
$3,400.”
This fee would be assessed for any new construction in
the area. Developers are charged the fee once for every dwelling
unit constructed. Developers do have the option of donating land
for park space, which can result in a 50 percent reduction in
their PLDO fees.
“This is a significant increase,” McDonough said. “I
would say it’s probably 8, maybe even 10 times, in certain
areas, what we charge presently.”
The county is split up into more than 20 Local Park
Planning Areas (LPPAs) and the money gathered from building
permits in an area is reserved for that area.
“All of the money collected in an LPPA, must remain in
that LPPA, to be used for parks,” said parks department
representative Patrick McDonough.
According to parks staff, San Diego County is well
behind other jurisdictions when it comes to PLDO fees.
“We looked at the county and we realized that we were
really falling behind our goals of one acre of park space per
3,000 people,” McDonough said. “We didn’t just pull this number
out of our hats.”
Parks department staff took each LPPA and analyzed real
estate costs, land costs and building costs in that particular
area.
According to McDonough, some proposed PLDO fees in the
county are upwards of $9,000. The Mountain Empire LPPA ranks
second to last for costs, just above Anza Borrego.
While money is reserved for projects within each LPPA,
no other is as large of an area as Mountain Empire. The Mountain
Empire LPPA spans east from Potrero to the county line, south to
the Mexican border, and north just to just past Interstate 8.
Pine Valley however, is it’s own LPPA.
Several residents were concerned that with such a large
area, there would be competition for PLDO funds.
“Your planning area is the whole Mountain Empire,” said
Lake Morena resident Chris Harris. “But any construction in Lake
Morena could mean new park space anywhere in Mountain Empire.”
“All of the money that we spend, we go through the
planning group first,” McDonough said. “Every year the county
requests five-year priority lists from community planning groups
to find out where that money should be spent.”
This raised concerns that the various planning and
sponsor groups in the Mountain Empire LPPA all have different
priorities. In the Mountain Empire LPPA there are four different
planning and sponsor groups; the Campo/Lake Morena and Potrero
planning groups, and the Boulevard and Jacumba sponsor groups.
According to McDonough, the county makes the final
decision about which project to move ahead with. He also said
that planning groups tend to have more say than sponsor groups.
Currently in the Mountain Empire PLDO coffers, there is about
$236,000, to be used for park development.
According to GP2020 projections, there is an expected
3,400 new dwelling units expected to be built in this LPPA. At
the current fee amount that would equate to just over $1.3
million, with the proposed fee increase, this could bring that
number to over $11 million.
“There’s a big difference what we can do with 1.3
versus 11 million dollars,” McDonough said.
He added that that money does not go towards county
staff fees. According to him, the county department charges
about $1,200 per LPPA, each year, for services.
The proposed increase is scheduled to go before the San
Diego Board of Supervisors this month. If approved by the
supervisors the fee increase will take effect after 60 days.
 E-mail
Christy Scott
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