California Building Industry Association

Fees and Costs

District to charge higher fees for new developments

Palm Springs Desert Sun
COACHELLA — Builders will soon pay higher fees, which will support schools. The Coachella Valley Unified School District on Tuesday voted 7 to 0 to increase the facilities fees charged for new construction within the district boundaries. Residential development fees were increased from $2.97 per square foot to $3.20 per square foot. Commercial development fees increased by four cents to $0.51 per square foot. The State Allocation Board increased the maximum amount districts could charge in January. School districts must use the revenue from these fees to address student population growth, which can include adding portable classrooms and desks or improving play fields to accommodate larger populations, Esqueda said.

Redding Council tries to spur growth

Redding Record-Searchlight
The City Council on Tuesday will consider expanding Redding's building fee waiver program that would allow more local homebuilders to take advantage of the fee holiday. But the city would forgo up to about $627,000 of traffic and sewer impact fees if the changes are approved. That money is used to fund road and sewer improvements, city officials have said. Council members voted unanimously Feb. 7 to have city staffers look at expanding the fee holiday to allow builders to seek waivers for duplexes, double the permit limit to 100 and allow builders with existing active permits to participate. Waiving traffic and sewer impact fees means about $12,500 of savings to developers for each single-family home. The current limit is set at 50 permits for new single-family homes only.

Martinez extends little-used economic stimulus program

Contra Costa Times
MARTINEZ -- Although few developers or property owners have taken advantage of a package of reduced building permit and impact fees the city adopted in 2010, the City Council has extended the program with hopes of encouraging new projects, creating jobs and stimulating the economy. The council agreed to continue it until September 2013. The so-called local economic stimulus package reduced by 35 percent the fees the city charges to compensate for the impact of new residential or commercial projects on parks, traffic, cultural facilities, police and child care; slashed by 75 percent the permit fees for seismic retrofitting unreinforced masonry buildings; cut by 50 percent building permit fees for new commercial projects and new single-family houses, among other fee discounts.

Growth/ Development

ESCONDIDO: April opening slated for new downtown apartments

North County Times
Latitude 33, a $42 million project that will bring 198 apartments downtown, will open to residents in late April with monthly rents starting around $1,400, a marketing official for the developer said this week. The official, Suzanne Madallon of Lyon Communities, said the company was confident the apartments would fill up quickly because the rents were chosen based on careful studies of the local rental and employment markets. Madallon said more than 400 people have put their names on an "interest list" for the project. The success of Latitude 33, the first major housing development built downtown, could be crucial to whether Escondido city leaders will achieve their goals of a vibrant downtown with a bustling night life.

Land Use/ Planning

Newhall Ranch development gets final approval from L.A. County Board of Supervisors

Los Angeles Daily News
After more than a decade of delays, the first phase of the controversial Newhall Ranch development is projected to break ground in late 2013 or early 2014, after the Board of Supervisors gave the project its final approval on Tuesday. The board gave the go-ahead to build Landmark Village, the first of five communities intended to make up the 12,000-acre Newhall Ranch development near the Interstate 5 and State Route 126 freeways. The second phase of the project, Mission Village, is also expected to receive final approval over the next few weeks. Landmark Village will consist of 270 single-family lots and 1,174 condominiums connected by retail centers, parks and plazas, to be built over 15 years.

Questioners give Napa Pipe the once over

Napa Valley Register
About 150 residents posed questions touching on a variety of aspects of the controversial Napa Pipe project at the Napa County Planning Commission’s meeting Tuesday night. The range of queries allowed county Planning Director Hillary Gitelman and Keith Rogal, a developer backing the project, to discuss its impact on traffic, its water supply, and potential cost. Throughout the hearing, Gitelman and Rogal presented competing visions for developing the 154-acre site along the east banks of the Napa River just south of Kennedy Park. County planning staff is advocating for a development that includes 700 to 945 residential units, with a mix of park space, and other office, retail, hotel uses, on 63 acres along the river banks.

Small housing a big issue for SM council

Santa Maria Times
Who would have thought creating small housing would be such a big job? Santa Maria's effort to create what its Community Development Department is calling Efficiency Dwelling Units - permanent apartment housing of spaces between 150 and 449 square feet - has gained the support of the public, the Planning Commission and the City Council, but it's not yet refined enough to be added to the Municipal Code, the council decided. The Santa Maria City Council unanimously voted to continue a hearing that would allow small apartment housing in the city's commercial zones to April 3, asking city planners to return with more specific details on parking and open space requirements for such developments.

Market

Valley builders optimistic in spite of housing market

Fresno Bee
Despite a sea of foreclosures and bargain-priced houses for sale across the central San Joaquin Valley, home builders are still finding a reason to raise the walls and roofs on new homes. Granted, they're building a mere fraction of the houses they once built, and they're having to throw in granite countertops, down-payment assistance and other inducements to close the deal. With fewer buyers lining up at model homes, builders have throttled back on production. Since 2008, the number of permits for construction of single-family homes in Fresno County has dropped by 61%. Last year, just 922 permits were issued, according to the California Building Industry Association. "We've been on a historically low production mode," said Mike Winn, the association's president. Inland areas such as the Valley have been hit especially hard, he said.

Rising sales point to better year for housing

Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The housing market is flashing signs of health ahead of the spring-buying season. Sales of previously occupied homes are at their highest level since May 2010. More first-time buyers are making purchases. And the supply of homes fell last month to its lowest point in nearly seven years, which could push home prices higher. Sales have now risen nearly 13 percent over the past six months. While they are still well below the 6 million that economists equate with a healthy market, the gains have coincided with other changes in the market that suggest more sales are coming. The National Association of Realtors said Wednesday that re-sales increased 4.3 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.57 million.

Construction employment below pre-recession peak in most areas

Los Angeles Times
U.S. construction employment is stuck at well below pre-recession levels in all but eight of 337 metropolitan areas, according to the Association of General Contractors of America. The Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metropolitan area showed the second worst performance, shedding 73,700 jobs, a 57% plunge since December 2005. Since December 2006, the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale area lost 56,700 jobs, a 36% decline, while the Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine area lost 38,900, a 37% drop. The San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos area lost 38,400 jobs, a 42% fall since December 2005.

Housing Costs Seen as Barrier to Local Growth

U-T San Diego
Even after one of the biggest housing crashes in U.S. history, San Diego home prices are still high enough to be one of the region’s main impediments to growth, a panel of economists told the City Council’s economic development and strategies committee on Tuesday. The panel, which was convened to help the committee develop a business plan to guide the city’s future, also said bureaucratic red tape, an aging infrastructure, a widening gap between rich and poor and a weakened education system are other stumbling blocks the city will need to address as it emerges from the recession. Their recommendations included: More affordable housing: “Our big weakness is housing prices,” said Alan Gin, economist at the University of San Diego. “Despite being low, they are still high relative to the rest of the country.”

Irvine homebuilder axes Mello Roos taxes

Orange County Register
One Orange County homebuilder is taking the tax-break sentiment to a new level: They're axing Mello Roos taxes at their latest project. Aliso Viejo-based The New Home Co, says there will be no Mello Roos taxes — common for many new home communities — at their new 169-home project at Lambert Ranch in north Irvine. And in announcing the move, the builder noted that no other Irvine new-home development can make the same claim. Developers usually use Mello Roos financing for infrastructure needed for a new community — from schools to roads. The homebuyer usually pays off that Mello Roos debt over time through higher property taxes.