§ 25D-3. Purpose.

In considering proposals for new residential development, the Board of Supervisors has evaluated reports from school districts and other agencies regarding the adequacy of public school services and facilities required to serve new development. In many cases, however, the required public services have not in fact been installed by the time the development causes a need. The result has been that residents in newly developed areas have been inadequately served with schools. State legislation and Chapter 25C of the Sonoma County Code provide for the dedication of land and/or the payment of fees by residential developers to overcrowded school districts for interim classroom and related facilities. The legislation and ordinance have alleviated some of the problems, but they make no provision for long-term permanent solutions to the overcrowding of school districts and provide no flexibility to the developer and district to agree upon alternative, and perhaps more efficacious, mitigation measures. The purpose of this Chapter 25D is to provide an alternative method of mitigating conditions of overcrowding created by new development by providing an alternative procedure through which the districts may secure fees for the purpose of constructing new permanent facilities, rehabilitating old facilities or acquiring land upon which such facilities may be constructed.