St. Mary Catholic School convinces City Council members to
reconsider fee system
Gilroy – City council members have agreed not to uproot Gilroy’s entire system for calculating development impact fees – a primary source of funding for road improvements, new sewer lines and other public infrastructure – to save a local Catholic school $19,000. But officials said they would look for ways to exempt St. Mary Parish Catholic School and others who seek to avoid paying what they call “unjust” fees.
Dozens of parents and officials from the school appeared before council Monday night, asking the city to waive nearly $19,000 in “traffic impact” fees for a 1,700-square-foot science lab, which they say will not generate any new traffic.
“Put simply, it is unjust to charge impact fees in the absence of impacts,” school representative Marie Blankley said. The school’s battle with City Hall started in November, after two years of working with City Hall on permits for the project.
In November, the school received the permits with an invoice for $26,859. The majority of that – $18,741 – represents a “traffic impact fee,” levied on “low-traffic” commercial buildings at a rate of $10,076 per thousand square feet. Blankley argues that the city should waive the traffic fee since the additional science lab will serve current students, rather than allowing the school to increase its population.
Father Dan Derry, who during the opening invocation prayed for council members to approach their decisions with humility and an open mind, added later that the issue surrounding his church’s school required an additional virtue.
“I think it’s just a matter of common sense, first of all, and fairness at the same time,” Derry said.
That argument has curried little favor among city managers, who say that waiving any portion of the fees could establish a dangerous precedent and be viewed as preferential treatment. Further, they say that if the city were to waive the building permit fees now, they would have no regulatory power to levy them in the future if the school uses the space to expand class sizes.
City staff warned against switching a fee formula that approaches each development proposal on a case by case basis.
“It could require that every small project would have to conduct a traffic study,” warned city engineer Kristi Abrams. “That at a minimum could cost the applicant $10,000.”
Councilmen voted unanimously to continue with the current fee structure but to seek a broader exemption within existing regulations that would apply to the school.
In the meantime, school officials may avoid the issue entirely by relocating the classroom from the west side of the school property, facing Church Street, to the east side facing Monterey Street. The latter area, now a parking lot for the church, lies within a zoning district in which all impact fees have been temporarily waived by city leaders eager to spur downtown redevelopment.
The school has envisioned creating a science lab for more than a decade. They have spent the last three years raising $170,000 to finance the $420,000 project, with the remainder expected to come from school parents and parishioners.
Debbie Ellis, parent of a fourth-grader at St. Mary, told council members that her children and others have donated their birthday money to help finance the project, and highlighted the need for the new lab.
“Our science teachers are working on a desk this big,” she said, holding up a newspaper. “Have you ever tried to dissect a squid on a desk this big?”
St. Mary officials planned to continue with the project to avoid incurring higher construction costs. City leaders said the school could get a rebate on the $19,000 if an exemption is passed. Council expects to review a draft ordinance to at its next meeting Feb. 6.
