San Diego Planners Want to Reform Park Funding System

The San Diego planning department hopes to get rid of a development impact fee system that currently funds such public amenities as parks, libraries, and streets, reports MacKenzie Elmer. Under the system, newer and more affluent neighborhoods get more improvements than their less lavish counterparts. Under the fee system, developers pay a different (often outdated) fee in each neighborhood based on the cost of the improvements and the expected amount of development.

The fees vary dramatically neighborhood to neighborhood. "The highest fees in the county are in Del Mar Mesa, $122,048 per home. They’re lowest in San Pasqual Valley, home to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, at $2,054," says Elmer. The city wants to share the development fees citywide, bringing up questions about which projects would be prioritized and whether it's legal to spend fees in a neighborhood that was collected somewhere else. The ultimate power lies with the mayor who controls the development impact fees as .01% of the annual budget.