1/17/2011

Post date: Mar 23, 2013 9:21:49 PM

River Oaks Neighborhood Association Board Meeting

Monday January 17, 2011

7:00pm @ Premier Pizza, River Oaks

Present: Jean, Mike, Laura, Erik, Erik Schoennauer (developer), Brad ? (developer)

Agenda item: Meet with developers to hear their side of the story.

  • Mike summarized RONA's current position and agenda for the meeting as: RONA sees a need for NSJ schools now and in the future. What is your philosophy? What are the developers offering now, and why do you think that's sufficient?

  • Points raised by Mr. Schoennauer:

    • If the developments don't get built, neither do the schools, parks, etc.

    • School district is "gambling" with this Mello Roos.

    • Developers don't feel like School District is willing or interested in negotiating.

    • Believe a K-8 school is good for their investment.

    • Agree that 900 student K-8 is sufficient for the 5000 units.

    • Claim that school district is trying to fix capacity issues elsewhere in the system by overbuilding in NSJ. "138 students from overcrowded Don Callejon." Would like the burden of that overcapacity to be placed on the developers in city of Santa Clara who are generating it. Claim that recent developments in Santa Clara are only paying $6000 per unit. Feel this is unfair. Would like school district to look at other pots of money for capacity issues.

    • Believe an acceptable K-8 school for 900 students can be built for $40 million. Had some comparison data for other schools built after 2000 in Northern California. Close example is the Don Callejon K-8 in Rivermark, 900 students, built in 2006 on 7.5 acres for $26.4 million.

    • They believe they are offering a fair price for a K-8 school at $8000 per unit for 5000 units (which is total of $40 million).

    • They note it's an accelerated payment schedule compared to the Mello Roos. Also note that the School District wants to build the school by 2014.

    • Believe the Mello Roos will cause many housing projects to be cancelled or deferred until better economic times.

    • The proposed high school cost of $200 million would make it one of the most expensive high schools built in the USA. Is this use of the money appropriate?

    • Overbuilding capacity can lead to insolvency and debt in the school district. Example: Modesto.

  • A bit more back-and-forth conversation:

    • Q: What is current offer?

    • A: Most recent offer from developers is $9000 per unit if SCUSD takes the offer today and the Mello Roos passes; and $5000 per unit if SCUSD takes the offer and the Mello Roos fails. If the SCUSD does not take the offer and the Mello Roos fails, the developers will only pay $3000 per unit. This includes slightly more units than the original (units that aren't approved but are in consideration by developers.) Note that if developers cut a deal with the SCUSD, they are essentially exempt from the Mello Roos.

    • Q: What is the student generation rate for North Park?

    • A: When NP was built, the district estimated that the 2700 apartment units would generate 400 kids. Using the generation rates being applied to NSJ, that estimate would be 200 kids. Actual population attending Orchard Elementary is about 65 kids.

    • Q: The city is estimating $55 million to build K-8. Why do they need an extra $40 million?

    • A: They haven't done their research on construction costs. They are overestimating. They are trying to get approval for the worst case scenario. They have over-estimated student-generation rates. They want to build a "high-end" school.

    • Q: Where did you get your numbers for $40 million estimate? What do those numbers include? Do they include "soft costs" (eg desks, whiteboards, computers, etc)?

    • A: We will get you more detail on the estimates.

  • RONA board would like to see more financial details from both sides. Overall consensus is that developers raised a few good points and that we need more information to make a decision.

  • RONA mentioned that we will be holding a community meeting on the Mello Roos and offered the developers a chance to present their arguments to the community fairly.