BUILDERS' SCHOOL FEES RISE LANCASTER DISTRICT AIMS TO GENERATE MORE CASH.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Lancaster School District became the fourth district in the Antelope Valley to hike developer fees above the standard set by state law - to about $5,800 for a typical new home, highest in the valley.

To help pay for building new schools and for adding classrooms at older campuses, the district will charge home builders $2.69 a square foot, up from the $1.60 a square foot previously levied, which amounts to $2,343 more for an average-sized home of 2,150 square feet.

``We've got tons of new kids and no place to put them. We're just back to square one and we've got to start building again,'' Superintendent Steve Gocke said.

The school board at Tuesday's meeting voted unanimously to approve a study that supports raising the fees and set the fees at $2.69 per square foot of residential construction.

The state set $2.14 per square foot as the standard developer fee for financing school construction. In the Antelope Valley, that amount is split between the Antelope Valley Union High School District and the individual elementary school districts.

The three other districts charging fees higher than their share of the standard $2.14 are the high school district, Palmdale School District and Westside Union School District. The high school district charges $1.38 a square foot; Palmdale, $2.57; and Westside, $1.85.

No representatives from the building industry attended the meeting. The district had previously notified them of the fee hike, Gocke said.

Gocke said developers were more concerned about the next level of fees that districts could charge should the state run out of school construction money. That could happen if a $12 billion statewide school bond measure fails in November.

At that point, Lancaster could start charging double the $2.69 fee, or $5.38 a square foot.

The Lancaster district meets the requirements set by state law for charging higher fees, officials say. Those include being on a multitrack year-round calendar, successfully passing a school construction bond measure in the last four years, and having 20 percent of its classes in portable classrooms.

Lancaster voters in March 1999 passed a $29 million school construction bond measure, but funds from that bond have already been spent on new schools and renovation projects.

``You have to justify it,'' Gocke said of the higher fees. ``You can't just raise them. You have to do a study and show we have no more district bond money for any future growth.''

The district has more than 15,500 students in kindergarten through eighth grade. In addition, it has more than 500 preschool students.

Gocke said enrollment has been growing by 3 percent every year.

Some of it is from new home construction but others is from a demographic shift: older families whose children have grown are moving out, and their homes are being bought by families with young children, Gocke said.

The district projects that 994 homes and 168 apartment units will be built in the next five years, generating 925 more students, the study said.