Building Industry Association
of San Diego

This would appear to be  a valid observation when elected officials in local government fail to act timely and responsibly on our request to adopt measures to jump start construction jobs.  With 40,000 construction industry related jobs gone, we make no excuses for our efforts which are designed to get our people back to work.

On Friday, July 24th, your CEO was kindly received by the San Diego Association of Governments.  The JOIN Campaign chose this Joint Powers Agency regular meeting to present a report on our industry and made a request that all local governments enact stimulus measures to jump start construction.   The pitch for help with job growth was facilitated by the City of San Diego’s actions earlier that week.  For the first time, BIA made the case for lower developer fees based on reports it received that bids on public facilities are costing local governments between 25% – 30% less.  These lower costs must be passed on in lower fees.  We thank the many volunteers who sat through two hours of unrelated testimony before our matter came up.

The actions decribed below were approved yesterday by the San Diego City Council.  Details to follow.

Council set to consider development-fee deferrals

2:00 a.m. July 21, 2009

SAN DIEGO: Builders whose projects have stalled because of the recession may get some relief from the San Diego City Council today when it considers extensions for permits and deferral of fees.

Under a proposed ordinance, project maps, permits and other entitlements would be given extensions of from 12 to 18 months. Under a separate ordinance, developers would be allowed to postpone paying certain upfront fees until projects are complete.

The upfront fees pay for community infrastructure, such as parks and fire stations. Applicants seeking deferrals would have to pay the city $300 to process the request.

The city’s independent budget analyst said in a report that the deferral of fees could provide a stimulus for construction projects because it would free up “limited capital.” The report also noted that other jurisdictions, such as Chula Vista and San Diego County, are deferring fees

Source:  Union Tribune

Here are the first six months of residential building permit activity as reported by San Diego’s 19 jurisdictions to the Construction Industry Research Board:

PLACE NAME        SFR               MFR           Total

————————————————————-

CARLSBAD:             52                 12               64

CHULA VISTA:         101                65            166

CORONADO:           16                   0                16

DEL MAR:                  1                    0                  1

EL CAJON:                4                    0                  4

ENCINITAS:            22                    0                22

ESCONDIDO:         62                    0                62

IMPERIAL BEACH:   0                    0                  0

LA MESA:                    0                    0                 0

LEMON GROVE:       1                    0                  1

NATIONAL CITY:       8                    0                  8

OCEANSIDE:          15                147             162

POWAY:                    42                    0               42

SAN DIEGO:          211                442             653

SD COUNTY:         263                    0             263

SAN MARCOS:        19                105             124

SANTEE:                   88                    0                88

SOLANA BEACH:      1                     0                  1

VISTA:                          1                     0                  1

—————————————————————-

TOTALS:                  907                771           1678

A critical jobs jumpstart action was taken yesterday. Governor Schwarzenegger signed AB 333 (Fuentes), the CBIA-sponsored bill to extend expiring subdivision maps for two additional years. The Governor’s signature on the bill means the measure takes effect immediately, keeping hundreds of expiring subdivision maps alive for another 24 months. AB 333 was introduced in January of this year as a key element of CBIA’s homebuilding industry recovery effort. Since then, the bill has won strong bi-partisan support and CBIA is hopeful the two-year extension outlasts the stubborn recession gripping state real estate markets. Earlier, CBIA became concerned that the targeted July 15 deadline would not be met. The Governor announced that until a deal was reached on the state budget he would not sign other legislation. But, the Governor did indicate that exceptions were possible. CBIA enlisted the support of many of you and worked with the Administration’s legislative representatives to ensure the Governor fully understood the importance of AB 333 and the urgency of signing it by July 15.

Seizing the momentum created yesterday by the precedent setting decision of the Riverside County Board of Supervisors to cut developer fees by 50%, BIA San Diego asked the San Diego Supes to do the same.  The decision reached in Riverside was based on significant drops in the public bids and construction costs of public facilities.  Construction of roads, schools, fire stations, libraries, wet utilities and parks cost substantially less today.   It follows that San Diego should assess the validity of its current developer fee levels which finance these very facilities.  Artificially high fee levels impede job recovery.