The Ramona Unified School District (RUSD) charges developer fees on new construction in Ramona. According to their website, the fee is $4.08 per square foot for new residential construction, $0.66 for commercial construction, and $0.563 for indoor agricultural construction.
For a 1,500-square-foot house, that fee adds $6,120 to the price you would have to pay for the home.
The fee is supposedly to “mitigate the impact of new construction on school facilities.” What is the “impact” on school facilities for childless people or parents with kids who don’t attend public school?
How does commercial or agriculture construction negatively impact school facilities?
The new 54-home Creekside Crossing development will have to pay RUSD over $400,000 to build homes regardless of whether public school kids live there? If you buy one of these homes, this fee will add $7,000 to $9,000 to your costs, and probably another $70 to $90 dollars in property taxes each year. If you rent one of these homes, you will pay for these fees and taxes.
Government bureaucracies like RUSD are generally inefficient, lack ability for performance, and they never have enough of our money. This developer fee scheme is a good example of how they increase our cost of living to enhance theirs. Unless you are an RUSD insider or a developer, you might not have known about these fees.
RUSD wants to increase our housing costs even more with a property tax increase on homeowners and renters in November. Please don’t let them do that.
