Riverside County and city leaders have waived nearly a quarter of the $726 million in developer fees that were to be set aside for regional road improvements in the western end of the county over the next five years, according to a study presented to the Riverside County Transportation Commission on Wednesday.
"It's quite disturbing," said county Supervisor Bob Buster, who is also a commissioner. "There have to be some consequences for those choices [to waive fees]."
But a handful of city leaders contested the report's findings, saying that in some cases developers received waivers only after agreeing to build or improve roads.
"It makes others look at us as if we're cheating," said Calimesa Councilman John Chlebnik, who also serves on the commission.
Nineteen members on the 30-seat commission voted to receive and file the report, while representatives from Calimesa, Banning, Beaumont and Canyon Lake voted against it, largely calling the report off-base. Other members were absent or abstained.
The commission funded the study to project revenue that would be raised by the Transportation Uniform Mitigation Fee, a program that requires developers to pay for traffic-flow improvements if they wish to build in western Riverside County. Since July 2003, developers have been required to pay $6,650 per house, and, since July of this year, pay 48 cents to $2.60 per square foot of industrial, office and retail development.
The fees are split between the county transportation commission and the Western Riverside Council of Governments, with a sliver going to a transit agency. More than $44 million has been raised.
In September, the commission approved the first major awards, funding mostly design and planning work for 23 projects with $71 million over five years, including widening Cajalco Road and turning Ramona Expressway into an east-west thoroughfare.
The commission and the council of governments initiated the $50,000 study, conducted by Newport Beach consulting firms David Taussig & Associates and the Concord Group, to take a comprehensive look at all planned development and project the revenue from developer fees.
The study found that, in the western part of the county through mid-2009, permission is expected for the building of 85,329 single-family homes, 14,407 multifamily homes, 6.4 million square feet of retail space, 1.2 million square feet of office space and 12.9 million square feet of industrial space.
