Murphys development fees reconsidered

A more costly fee for would-be builders in a newly developed area of Murphys will come back before the Calaveras County Board of Supervisors for consideration on Tuesday.

The fee tacked onto residential building permits within the area known as the Bret Harte Benefit Basin, formerly $714 to $6,036 per unit, became $14,541 after a unanimous vote by supervisors April 21. For commercial buildings, the fee of $14,159 per parcel acre changed to $12,149 per 1,000 square-feet of leasable space.
  

The fee changes represent a substantial cost to property owners like Jim Heryford, whose pending building permit for a two-tenant commercial building in this part of Murphys could cost him tens of thousands of dollars more than under the old fee system. Heryford and other applicants are awaiting a decision from the board on whether the new set of fees will apply to permits submitted prior to the April 21 vote.

The board’s vote came as “an urgency measure as an interim authorization to protect the public health, welfare and safety,” allowing a 30-day implementation of the fee and requiring a four-fifths vote. If the board does not vote to extend the interim authorization Tuesday, the former fee schedule would apply until the previously-approved fee hike takes effect June 20. In that case, a rush of building applications under the lower fee schedule could sink the basin altogether, county officials have argued.

Established in 1995, the benefit basin was the first of its kind in the county. It is intended to raise funds for road projects needed to support development just east of downtown Murphys in an area now with several housing developments.

Among uses for the basin fees were improving Bret Harte Drive and moving its intersection with Highway 4. But the project needed altering because of failed negotiations with Caltrans and the California Highway Patrol to move truck scales near Highway 4 and Bret Harte Drive.

The original project, priced at almost $900,000, ballooned to $3.38 million in order to accommodate the truck scales. A re-designed project includes making Bret Harte Drive a right-turn-in, right-turn-out only road from Highway 4, a new intersection at Big Trees Road and Creekview Drive and improvements at the intersection at Big Trees Road and Highway 4. 

Developers and area residents present at the April 21 meeting suggested to supervisors that an assessment district rather than benefit basin be formed to fund the road improvements. Such a district would require voter approval, and Supervisor Tom Tryon, whose District 4 includes the basin, dismissed it as “98 percent certain to be dead on arrival.”

Nevertheless, developer Jack Kautz, who has a number of projects in the works in the basin, has said he is considering a door-knocking campaign within the basin to build support for an assessment district.