Acton Agua Dulce Unified School District Data

School Facility Fee Justification Report For Residential, Commercial & Industrial Development Projects For The Acton-Agua Dulce Unified School District

March 2005

Prepared for
Acton-Agua Dulce Unified School District 32248 N. Crown Valley Road P.O. Box 68 Acton, CA 93510-0068

Prepared by
School Facility Consultants 1130 K Street, Suite LL12 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 441-5063

Table Of Contents

Executive Summary
Introduction

A. Purpose and Scope
B. Brief Description of the Acton-Agua Dulce Unified School District
C. Data Sources
D. Outline of the Report

I. District Facility Needs
A. Pupil Capacity of District Facilities
1) Classroom Loading Standards
2) Classroom Capacity
3) Percent Utilization 5
B. District Facility Requirements
C. Plan for Fulfilling School Facility Needs 6

II. Financial Impact on the District of New Residential Development
A. Number of Students per New Housing Unit
B. Cost of Providing School Facilities
C. Cost of Providing School Facilities per K-12 Student Generated by Future Development
D. Cost of Providing School Facilities per New Residential Housing Unit
E. Cost of Providing School Facilities per Square Foot of New Residential Development

III. Revenues from Fees on Residential Development Versus Costs of School Facilities
Fee Revenue from Residential Development Over the Next Five Years
B. Fee Revenue from Additions to Existing Residences
C. Fee Revenue from Reconstruction and Redevelopment
D. School Facility Costs Generated by Residential Development Over the Next Five Years 11

E. School Facility Costs Generated by Additions to Existing Residences
F. School Facility Costs Generated by Reconstruction and Redevelopment
G. Extent of Mitigation of School Facility Costs Provided by Level I Residential Fees
H. Senior Citizen Restricted Housing

IV. Financial Effect on the District of New Commercial/Industrial Development
A. Employees per Square Foot of Development
B. Percentage of Employees Residing Within the District
C. Number of Households per Employee
D. Number of Students per Dwelling Unit
E. School Facility Cost per Pupil
F. School Facility Cost per Square Foot of Commercial/Industrial Development
G. Calculating School Facility Cost of Commercial/Industrial Development with Residential Fee Offset

V. Findings
A. Government Code Section 66001(a)(1) - Purpose of the Fee
B. Government Code Section 66001(a)(2) - Use of the Fee
C. Government Code Section 66001(a)(3) - Relationship Between the Fee's Use and the Type of Project Upon Which Fee is Imposed
D. Government Code Section 66001 (a)(4) - Relationship Between the Need for the Public Facility and the Type of Project Upon Which the Fee is Imposed
E. Government Code Section 66001(b) - Relationship Between the Fee and the Cost of The Public Facility Attributable to the Development on Which the Fee is Imposed
F. Other Funding Sources
1) General Fund
2) State Programs
3) General Obligation Bonds
4) Parcel Taxes
5) Mello-Roos Community Facilities District
6) Surplus Property
7) Redevelopment

VI. Recommendations

Appendix: Employee Statistics From the San Diego Association of Governments by Various Categories of Commercial/Industrial Development

Executive Summary

The Acton-Agua Dulce Unified School District (District) is justified to collect the legal maximum fee of $2.24 per square foot of residential development as authorized by Government Code Section 65995 (Level I fees), as future residential development creates a school facility cost of $2.61 per square foot. The District is also justified to collect the legal maximum fee of $0.36 per square foot of development on all categories of commercial/industrial development (except rental self-storage), as those categories of development create school facility costs ranging from $0.93 to $3.93 per square foot of future development. Fees for new rental self-storage should be established on an individual case-by-case basis.

The District's justification for collecting fees on future residential and commercial/industrial development is based on the following facts and projections:

1. The District's current enrollment is larger than its pupil capacity. The District, therefore, does not have sufficient capacity to house students generated by future development.

2. Over a five-year period, future residential development is projected to create 235 additional students in the District. These students will require the District to acquire new school facilities.

3. Each square foot of future residential development creates an estimated school facilities cost of $2.61. All categories of commercial/industrial development (except rental self-storage) create an estimated school facilities cost ranging from $0.93 to $3.93 per square foot of commercial/industrial development.

4. If the District collects the current maximum fee on residential development authorized by Government Code Section 65995 of $2.24 per square foot, fee revenue will offset 86 percent of the school facility cost attributable to residential development. If the District collects the current maximum fee on commercial/industrial development authorized by Government Code Section 65995 of $0.36 per square foot, fee revenue will offset from nine percent to 39 percent of the school facility cost attributable to commercial/industrial development (except rental self-storage). For both residential and commercial/industrial development, the fees authorized by Government Code Section 65995 are fully justified.

The fees outlined above all meet the requirements of Government Code Section 66001 (the nexus requirements), that is, a reasonable relationship exists between the amount and use of the fees and the developments on which they are charged. To Index

Introduction

This Report analyzes the cost of providing school facilities for students generated by future residential and commercial/industrial development projects in the Acton-Agua Dulce Unified School District (District). School Facility Consultants has been retained by the District to conduct the analysis and prepare this Report.

A. Purpose and Scope

The purpose of this Report is to show that the District meets pertinent requirements of State law regarding the collection of developer fees.

State law gives school districts the authority to charge fees on new residential and commercial/industrial developments if those developments generate additional students and cause a need for additional school facilities. Government Code Section 65995 authorizes school districts to collect fees on future development of no more than $2.24 per square foot for residential construction and $0.36 for commercial/industrial construction (Level I fees). Level I fees are adjusted every two years according to the inflation rate for Class B construction as determined by the State Allocation Board. Government Code Section 66001 requires that a reasonable relationship exist between the amount and use of the fees and the development on which the fees are to be charged.

This Report:

identifies the cost of providing school facilities for students generated by future residential and commercial/industrial development in order to justify the collection of fees on those developments and

explains the relationship between the fees and the developments on which those fees are to be charged.

B. Brief Description of the Acton-Agua Dulce Unified School District

The Acton-Agua Dulce Unified School District is located in Los Angeles County. District boundaries may be seen in greater detail on maps available at the District Office.

The District currently serves over 1,980 students in grades K-12 and operates two elementary schools, one middle school and one comprehensive high school.

Opportunities for new residential development exist in the District, and approximately 395 new residential units are projected to be built in the District over the next five years.

To accommodate this future residential development, the District plans to add portable classrooms to existing elementary and middle school campuses and build a new high school campus. In addition, the District may lease additional portable classrooms to use for interim housing while permanent high school facilities are being constructed.

C. Data Sources

The data sources for this Report are listed in the table below and referenced throughout the Report.

D. Outline of the Report

The Report is divided into six sections. The sections:

1. Identify the District's school facility needs,

2. Calculate the financial impact on the District of future residential and commercial/industrial developments,

3. Compare the projected revenues from developer fees to the costs of providing facilities to students generated by future developments,

4. Show that the District satisfies the requirements of Government Code Section 66001 with respect to the collection of developer fees,

5. Summarize other potential funding sources for school facilities and 6. Present recommendations regarding the collection of developer fees. To Index

I. District Facility Needs

This Section describes the District's requirements for school facilities. Specifically, the following subsections:

A) Identify the District's current capacity,

B) Subtract the District's enrollment from the District's capacity to calculate the District's facility needs and

C) Describe the District's plan to fulfill its facility needs.

A. Pupil Capacity of District Facilities

The Report calculates the pupil capacity of the District by (1) taking an inventory of the classrooms that are included in the District's long-term facility plans and (2) applying the District's classroom loading standards to that inventory.

1) Classroom Loading Standards

The District's classroom loading standards are listed in Table 1-1.

2) Classroom Capacity

Table 1-2 lists the classroom capacity of the District by grade group. The capacity is determined by multiplying the number of classrooms in the District by the appropriate District loading standard identified in Table 1-1.

The classroom count was established by conducting an inventory of the District's school sites. Any facilities that are not part of the District's long-range facility plans are not included in this count. Specifically, facilities not present in the classroom count include: (1) leased (including State leased) portable classrooms, (2) portable classrooms at Acton School that are too old to maintain and relocate (3) pull-out type classrooms, (4) classrooms not owned by the District, and (5) classrooms used by the District for special programs such as childcare/pre-school programs. At the high school level, the District plans to build a permanent high

school to replace the existing portable campus and therefore, this Report does not include any existing capacity at the high school grade levels.

Table 1-2 Classroom Count and Pupil Capacity Based on District Loading Standards

3) Percent Utilization

Table 1-3 shows the percentage of classroom capacity the District is utilizing by dividing the capacity listed above (Table 1-2) by the District's current enrollment as indicated in the District's October 2004 CBEDS information.

As Table 1-3 shows, the District is currently operating over capacity and does not have available existing facilities to house students generated by future residential development.

B. District Facility Requirements

Table 1-4 calculates the District's requirements for school facilities by subtracting its current capacity from its current enrollment. To Index

II Financial Impact On The District Of Future Residential Development

This Section quantifies how future residential development financially affects the District.

Future residential development will generate additional students in the District. As shown in the previous section, adequate school facilities do not exist for these students. Future residential development, therefore, financially affects the District by generating a need for additional school facilities that the District must acquire at some cost. This section describes this cost in three ways: (1) dollars per K-12 student generated from future development, (2) dollars per housing unit and (3) dollars per square foot of future development.

In order to calculate the financial effects described above, the Report needs to first, calculate the number of students that will live in a new housing units in the District and the per-pupil cost of providing school facilities for elementary, middle and high school students.

A. Number of Students per New Housing Unit

This Report estimates the number of students that each future residential housing unit will generate by analyzing the rate at which previously built housing units have generated current District pupils. Housing units built in 2000 were used to calculate this rate, as this year represents the peak pupil generation rate and peak student impact from residential development, over the period of 1992-2003.

This Report calculates the student generation rate using student address information from the District and housing information from Los Angeles County Assessor data accessed through the Metroscan software program. The peak student impact is calculated by taking the number of K-12 students enrolled in the District and living in housing units that were built in 2000 and then dividing that number by the total number of housing units that were built in 2000.

Table 1-6 lists the student generation rates for the District.

Table 1-6 Student Generation Rates

B. Cost of Providing School Facilities

The per-pupil cost of providing school facilities for unhoused students is outlined in Table 1-7. The cost of the District's housing plan is based on the District's current cost estimates for new elementary, middle and high school projects. The District may experience interim housing costs while permanent facilities are being constructed. Interim housing costs, however, are not quantified in this Report.

Table 1-7 Per-pupil Facility Costs for K-12 Students

C. Cost of Providing School Facilities per New K-12 Student Generated by Future Development

The Report determines the facility cost of a K-12 student generated by future development by calculating a weighted average of the facility costs for elementary, middle and high school students.

The relative size of the three student generation rates for residential housing units tells us that 43 percent of students from new units will be elementary students, 34 percent will be middle school students and 23 percent will be high school students. Table 1-8 weights each per pupil facility cost by the appropriate percentage and provides a weighted average facility cost for K-12 students from future residential development.

Table 1-8 Weighted Average School Facility Cost for a K-12 Student From Future Residential Development

D. Cost of Providing School Facilities per New Residential Housing Unit

Table 1-9 multiplies the total number of students per housing unit by the facility costs of K-12 students to calculate an $11,650 facility cost attributable to future residential housing units.

Table 1-9School Facility Cost per New Housing Unit

E. Cost of Providing School Facilities per Square Foot of Future Residential Development

This Report calculates the school facility cost per square foot of future development by dividing the cost per housing unit by the average square footage of housing units.

This Report estimates that future residential housing units will have an average square footage of 2,654 square feet. This estimate is equal to the average square footage of residential units built in the District between 1999 and 2003 as indicated in Los Angeles County Assessor data access through the Metroscan software program. Los Angeles County Assessor data for 2004 was incomplete at the time of the drafting of this Report and therefore not considered in the average square footage estimate.

Table 1-10 shows the school facility cost per square foot of new residential housing units.

Table 1-10 School Facility Cost Per Square Foot of Residential Development

To Index

Acton Agua Dulce School District Data
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