Board then considers easing burden on seniors by allowing
payments over time
Supervisors lowered traffic impact fees on granny units Tuesday
and are now examining the possibility of allowing property owners
to pay it over 30 years instead of up front.
Board then considers easing burden on seniors by allowing payments over time
Supervisors lowered traffic impact fees on granny units Tuesday and are now examining the possibility of allowing property owners to pay it over 30 years instead of up front.
In December the board had more than doubled the residential traffic impact fees for second senior homes, from $7,520 to $15,464, a move that frustrated new Hollister resident Carl Chase. On Tuesday, they split the difference and voted in a $10,206 fee.
“I’ve worked all my life, with my own two hands,” said the 74-year-old Chase. “Nobody gave me anything, and to be hit with that at my age is a little too much. There’s a universe of fees to be paid and the use-restrictions go on and on and on.”
Chase, a retired aeronautical engineer, moved with his wife to Hollister from Prunedale last summer. They planned to remodel the second cottage on their property, but were stunned when the planning department told them about the traffic impact fees and the plan to raise them.
“I was disturbed,” he said.
After months of fighting the county over what he felt was an exorbitant charge, Chase scored a minor victory when Supervisor Ruth Kesler made a motion Tuesday that the fee be lowered to $10,206, with an occupancy limit of two people.
Supervisors Pat Loe and Reb Monaco voted “no,” with Loe arguing that property owners should be able to pay the impact fees over 30 years in the form of higher property taxes.
“There’s nothing in this ordinance that helps seniors,” she said. “It only decreases the fees for the landowners.”
After the vote, Chairman Richard Scagliotti recommended that someone make a motion directing staff to amend the ordinance again, this time allowing the deferred payments. Monaco obliged.
Scagliotti then asked that staff explore the difference between lesser fees paid by commercial property owners and those paid by residential owners.
The ordinance will help pay for road improvements only in the northern half of the county. For that reason, residents living south of Willow Springs and the Pinnacles National Monument will pay only 5 percent of the fee if they want to add a granny unit on their property. Residents in the San Juan Bautista area will pay 20 percent of the fee.
