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Builders call fire rebuild park fees double-dipping

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Eight years after the Witch Creek fire barreled through the area, two Ramona builders are still constructing houses to replace those destroyed but are upset over a fee they’ve been charged, saying it amounts to the county “double-dipping.”

The county’s Park Land Dedication Ordinance (PLDO) requires a park fee to be charged for new dwellings in the unincorporated areas. The fee has increased over the years since the ordinance was adopted in 1973. For Ramona, the fee is approximately $4,200 per dwelling.

The money goes into a PLDO account, overseen by the county Parks and Recreation Department, for neighborhood and community park or recreational purposes “to serve future residents of such development.” The ordinance also states that land may be dedicated for park purposes in lieu of a fee.

There is an exception toward paying that fee if the dwelling is a fire rebuild, but Joe Scheuer, owner of Designright Builders, and Eric Webb, owner of Webb Construction, are finding the exception depends on the circumstances.

Webb has been charged the park fee for three fire rebuilds, two of them on Pile Street. He filed for one of those building permits in 2014 and the other early this year. Tacked onto the building permit invoice was the park fee. When he questioned the fee, Webb said he was told that he would have to pay the fee because the properties were sold after the fires and have new owners.

“We needed a permit so we paid it,” he said, but does not agree with the regulation.

The houses were already accounted for, already developed, Webb said, so rebuilding the houses would not add more impact on parks in the community.

“When you think about a house burning down, it’s not new development,” said Webb.

In response to an inquiry by the Sentinel, Jill Bankston, chief of development for the parks and recreation department, pointed out two documents that direct how county staff handles PLDO fees for fire rebuilds.

The ordinance states that the owner of a dwelling destroyed by fire will not have to pay the fee if the building application permit is filed within six months of destruction of the dwelling.

Bankston also referred to the county’s Firestorm Policy Document that addresses fee waivers for property owners who were 2007 fire victims.

The ordinance and policy “dictate that PLDO fees for fire rebuilds are waived only for fire victims — not for new owners of affected parcels,” Bankston said in an email.

“They’re basically double-dipping the system,” Webb said.

The park fee is also charged for a fire rebuild if the house was built before 1973, when the PLDO went into effect, she said.

Scheuer said he was charged the park fee for four fire rebuilds, which he contested, and was refunded by the county on two of the parcels.

According to Bankston, after the county was notified of the potential error in his fee payments, staff evaluated the fees paid to determine if there had been a duplicate payment, and when that was confirmed for two parcels, issued a refund.

Scheuer is still seeking refunds on the other two parcels but a letter from the county states that parks and recreation and Planning and Development Services have no record of duplicate payments and those parcels do not qualify for any other scenario that would allow a refund.

Together those park fees amount to about $8,000.

“Aren’t they just taking advantage of the fee?” Scheuer said. “It’s an illegal tax in my viewpoint.”

As of June, the balance in Ramona’s PLDO account was $806,533, according to county staff. The Parks and Recreation Subcommittee of Ramona Community Planning Group has been waiting for an updated amount as it compiles a new PLDO Project Priority List that is requested by county parks and recreation.

Since 2013, two projects have been completed: the Boys & Girls Club basketball court in Collier Park and Ramona High School baseball/softball dugouts. Three projects have been proposed for Ramona Community Park — conversion of an adult softball field to two soccer fields, Ramona Girls Softball LED scoreboards, and an amphitheater/recreational area — but bureaucratic challenges have slowed progress on those.

Parks and Recreation Subcommittee members learned last year more about the PLDO process, including how the county charges to maintain the PLDO fund and how the money is used.

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