The Bend Park & Recreation District Board this week broke from a city of Bend plan to cut development fees levied on new affordable housing projects, a move the City Council says will hurt the ability of developers to build homes within reach of cash-strapped families.

After a series of delays, the park board voted 3-2 on Monday to reject the plan, which would exempt qualifying affordable developments from paying fees to the city and district. The fees, known as system development charges or SDCs, are intended to offset the cost of building new roads, sewers, drinking water infrastructure and parks. The fees add about $17,000 to the cost of building a new single-family home, a number likely to go up by a few thousand dollars as the City Council is set to consider raising the fees. The city’s cut of SDCs is a little less than 60 percent, with the remainder going to the park district.

On June 17, the City Council expressed support for a plan to excuse up to $1 million worth of SDCs over the next biennium. Affordable projects will not be guaranteed an SDC reduction, as the city will review applications to decide if and how much to reduce the fees. The plan voted down by the park board called for the district to give up $500,000 in SDCs.

Jim Long, the city’s affordable housing manager, said Tuesday there’s a misperception that fee reductions will only benefit developers who will pocket the savings. Long noted the builders of such units are nonprofits that dedicate any income into future projects.

“Nobody is benefiting from this besides low-income people,” he said.

At the park district meeting, the three board members who voted against the measure, Dan Fishkin, Nathan Hovekamp and Ted Schoenborn, argued the reductions will not be able to make a dent in the city’s affordable housing problem. Schoenborn added that a previous SDC exemption during the recession didn’t work.

“I’m not an expert at this. I’ve only been (working with affordable housing) for 27 years, but I sure don’t see how an SDC reduction couldn’t have an effect,” Long said. “I’ve used it in other places. When working in Salem, it was one of our most common tools.”

City Councilor Nathan Boddie, who supports the fee plan, said he agreed SDC reductions won’t solve Bend’s housing woes, but said, “We have to do everything we can about this, and while SDCs aren’t a solution, they’re part of one.”

Mayor Jim Clinton said he understands the district’s main concern is parks, but he lamented the lack of coordination between the city’s separate governments, saying such a division makes it difficult to address “communitywide” problems.

While Clinton is worried the city’s SDC reductions will now be less effective at spurring affordable housing, he noted “it’s not over yet.”

Fishkin lost a re-election bid in May, falling to Brady Fuller, who during the campaign said he supports reducing SDCs for affordable developments. Fishkin’s last meeting was this week, meaning should there be a future vote on the SDC program, the outcome might be reversed.

The City Council is expected to formally vote on SDC reductions at its July 15 meeting.

— Reporter: 541-633-2160, tleeds@bendbulletin.com