New homes and commercial projects will be charged more.
Developers will pay higher fees to the Fresno Unified School District for all new homes and commercial projects built within the district's boundaries, trustees said Wednesday.
With a unanimous vote, the school board approved a new fee schedule that charges developers $2.97 per square foot for new homes and 47 cents per square foot on commercial projects.
For the past two years, the district charged $2.63 per square foot for new homes and 42 cents per square foot for commercial projects.
The new fees will take effect July 14.
State law allows school districts to increase developer fees every two years if they provide a justification study that shows a need for higher fees to fund construction or remodeling of school buildings.
Tuesday night, Central Unified School District approved a new fee schedule that charges developers $4.70 per square foot for new residential homes.
Clovis Unified School District approved new fees last month that charges developers $3.26 per square feet.
In those two districts, the commercial fee is the same as Fresno Unified's 47 cents per square foot.
Fresno Unified can not charge as much as Clovis and Central school districts because it has had several years of declining enrollment, said Lisa LeBlanc, executive director of facilities, management and planning for Fresno Unified.
But the district's enrollment will likely begin climbing, LeBlanc told the school board.
"New development is expected to generate approximately 1,179 additional students in the district during the next five years," the study said, noting that the district will need to construct more school buildings to accommodate these students.
LeBlanc said a study by the firm of Paoli & Dell Inc. found that developer fees for 1,715 single-family homes, 770 multiple-family units and 3.1 million square feet of commercial and industrial development would need to be collected to accommodate future population growth.
The study also found that the $2.97 maximum fee falls short of fully paying the cost of providing school facilities for students from new development, LeBlanc said.
The district would have to charge $3.26 per square foot to fully fund the cost, she said.
Before LeBlanc could finish her presentation Wednesday night, trustee Manuel Núñez made a motion to approve the new fees.
The other trustees quickly joined in. There was no opposition from the audience.
Earlier, Mike Prandini, executive director of the Building Industry Association of the San Joaquin Valley, said he had no objections to Fresno Unified's new fee schedule.
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