FEE SPLIT SPELLS FEWER SCHOOLS; LITTLE CASH LEFT OVER FOR NEW SANTA CLARITA VALLEY CAMPUSES.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

Although the state government recently granted public school districts permission to raise the fees they charge developers, the new rate won't generate much money toward building local campuses.

The maximum fee that school districts can charge developers is $1.93 per square foot of residential construction, up from the previous rate of $1.84 per square foot, according to a Jan. 28 vote by the State Allocations Board.

But when a developer builds a tract of homes in Castaic, Newhall, Canyon Country, Saugus, Valencia or other Santa Clarita Valley communities, the fees paid to compensate for the impact on local schools are split - between the local elementary school district and the William S. Hart Union High School District. That doesn't leave much money to build the fifth junior high and fifth high school that the region needs.

At its meeting tonight, the Hart district school board is expected to follow the lead of the State Allocation Board and adopt the $1.93-per-square-foot fee, a vote that's little more than a formality, officials said.

But in a report issued this month concerning developer fees, a consultant hired by the Hart district found that the enrollments at Arroyo Seco, La Mesa, Placerita and Sierra Vista junior high schools are a combined 1,175 students over their designed capacity.

The story is the same at the high schools, where Hart, Canyon, Saugus and Valencia have 2,344 more students this year than they were originally equipped to handle, according to the study by Newport Beach-based David Taussig and Associates Inc. Portable classrooms have been installed around the Hart district to accommodate the overflow pending construction of any new schools.

The district collects about $1 million per year in developer fees, and the rate hike will generate an extra $50,000 annually, said Bill Maddigan, director of business and fiscal services for the Hart district.

In the study, the consultant estimated that it will cost $24.1 million to build each new junior high and $51.4 million to build each new high school that will be needed because of residential construction.

What concerns Hart officials is that of the estimated 66,468 homes planned for construction within district boundaries in the near future, developers have made reimbursement agreements with the district for fewer than half of them. The financial impact for the other 39,452 proposed homes hasn't been settled, the study found.

The Hart district and the region's biggest developer, The Newhall Land and Farming Company, haven't been able to reach a fee agreement despite protracted negotiations.

``Right now, with Newhall Land, we're saying we need $5,600 (in developer fees) for each house,'' Maddigan said. Based on an average of 1,848 square feet per home, that would amount to fees of $3.11 per square foot, he said.

The district wants to charge $2,100 for each condominium, town home or apartment built within its boundaries, Maddigan added.

Marlee Lauffer, spokeswoman for Newhall Land, said the question of who should pay for construction of new schools is an age-old debate.

``The districts are looking more and more to developers to pay more of the costs,'' she said.