City of San Diego v. Holodnak

Opinion

BUTLER, J.

The City of San Diego appeals a judgment denying its petition for a peremptory writ of mandate to require James Holodnak, former acting auditor and controller of San Diego, to release funds collected from North City West landowners.

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I

Seeking to prevent uncontrolled suburban sprawl, San Diego adopted its progress guide and general plan for controlled, orderly and rational growth. Before any subdivision maps for new developments are recorded, the general plan requires San Diego to adopt a financing plan for developers to pay for public facilities a new community will need.

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North City West is a new community being built in the northwest corner of San Diego, directly east of Del Mar and Interstate 5. It contains about 4,200 acres which the North City West Community Plan

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estimates will be developed into about 14,000 homes, a town center and commercial and industrial complexes.

In April 1982, San Diego prepared the North City West Public Facilities Financing Plan. It provides for use of several financing methods which, consistent with the general plan, requires the developers of North City West to pay for North City West’s public facilities. Part of the financing plan calls for financing public facilities by using “Facilities Benefit Assessments” (FBA).

The FBA is a method of spreading the cost for certain public facilities among the properties benefited by those facilities. A formula is used in which each parcel is assigned a number (equivalent dwelling unit factor (EDU)) which represents the anticipated need parcels with the same land use will have for each facility financed. The EDU is then used to apportion estimated costs for the various facilities among the parcels in the development.

In August 1980, San Diego adopted the FBA procedural ordinance (ordinance No. 0-15318) which allows San Diego to: designate “areas of benefit” to be assessed for public improvements; apportion costs for the improvements among the parcels within the areas of benefit; and levy the assessments against each parcel (constituting a lien on it) which the owner must pay in whole or in part when applying for a building permit. The money collected is to be placed in separate city accounts for use only for the public improvements for which the assessments are levied. In May 1982, San Diego passed Resolution R-256462, adopting the North City West Public Facilities Financing Plan, designating most of North City West as an area of benefit and requiring the public facilities mentioned above to be financed by the FBA.