Hazel Hawkins Hospital has tabled a plan to raise $26 million
for long-term hospital improvements through increased impact fees
on new homes until after residents vote on a bond measure intended
to raise more than $30 million for immediate hospital
renovations.
Hollister – Hazel Hawkins Hospital has tabled a plan to raise $26 million for long-term hospital improvements through increased impact fees on new homes until after residents vote on a bond measure intended to raise more than $30 million for immediate hospital renovations.
Officials are waiting until residents vote on Measure L, which will be appearing in mailboxes this week, to discuss whether talk will resume about the impact fee portion of their plan, according to hospital CEO Ken Underwood.
“It’s (impact fees) separate from Measure L. It’s not anything the board has talked about in several months,” Underwood said. “If the board decides to look for funding for additional projects in the future, that would be an issue of impact fees.”
If Measure L passes with a two-thirds vote, it would garner $31.5 million over a 20-year period. The bond funding would pay for all of the renovations, new facilities and upgraded technology the hospital says it needs to meet the service demand of an ever-increasing population. Included in their plans is a new emergency room, obstetrics unit and a host of technological upgrades.
Officials have been throwing around the idea of increased impact fees as a possible way to procure funding for additional expansion years down the road, said Fernando Gonzalez, co-chair for the Measure L committee.
If the bond passes, the money will be available immediately, and the hospital hopes to open the doors to a new emergency room by 2007. But additional funding made available by impact fees would take years to accumulate, and could be used for additional facilities, upgraded equipment or further renovations, Gonzalez said.
“The focus is trying to get Measure L going and get that approved,” Gonzalez said. “But 10 years from now we may have to expand another part of the hospital. Unless we have a way to generate funds we may have to look again for a bond. It’s long-term thinking, not short-term thinking.”
If Measure L passes it would add $14.95 to every $100,000 of assessed property value. For the average-priced home, that would add about $84 to that annual fee.
The impact fees would affect anyone building a new home in the county – including Hollister and San Juan Bautista – and would add between $2,100 to $2,300 to the approximately $30,000 in impact fees new home owners and developers must cough up to build in San Benito County, according to a hospital-commissioned study.
The hefty price tag attached to building a new home in the county goes toward an assortment of city and county services, according to county Assessor Tom Slavich. Traffic impact fees top the list with more than $15,000 in fees, but fire protection, parks and recreation, jail and juvenile hall, road equipment and school fees all play into the total amount all new home owners must pay. Slavich said current residents remodeling or renovating homes would not be affected by increased fees – only those building brand new homes.
The county Board of Supervisors and the Hollister and San Juan Bautista city councils would have to approve increasing impact fees, and the feelings are mixed between government officials.
Hollister City Councilman Doug Emerson said that while he hasn’t studied the impact fee proposal at length, his tendency would be to support the idea.
“When you look at the growth of Hollister and the lack of growth in the hospital to keep up, there certainly is a need,” Emerson said. “But until I really sit down and study it I would hesitate to say for sure.”
County Supervisor Don Marcus has expressed some hesitation on increasing impact fees because it only affects a portion of the community, but conceded the need for hospital renovations is apparent. Supervisor Pat Loe said she would support increasing the fees if the hospital showed there was a true impact to the community.
“We can’t raise property taxes so services have got to be paid for somehow,” she said.
While increased impact fees could cause some people to be leery of building in San Benito County, local Realtor Marilyn Ferreira said having a first-rate hospital in the area is a more important selling point than a few thousand dollars extra in impact fees.
“It may make it more expensive, but everybody has a need in their lifetime for the hospital,” she said. “If you can tell your people if they have a heart attack there’s the latest technology available for them, and there’s an expanded emergency room, that’s the number one priority.”
Erin Musgrave covers public safety for the Free Lance. Reach her at 637-5566, ext. 336 or
em*******@fr***********.com
