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Public works are part of doing business here: builders assert they're paying their share to upgrade roads and sewers.

Article Excerpt
While Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature continue to battle over a $50 billion public-works bond measure to fund much-neglected infrastructure throughout the state, San Diego builders are pouring money into the communities that will be hosting their brand-new projects.

Some of the enhancements are outside the formal boundaries of their developments and in some cases, could be considered above and beyond the call of duty. But for some local builders, it's all part of the cost of doing business in 21st century San Diego.

"I think there is a confluence of lots of issues that have come together," said Fred Maas, the president and chief executive officer of Black Mountain Ranch LLC, which is developing a 4,677-acre planned community in the city of San Diego, between Inter-states 5 and 15, just off state Route 56.

"One of them, to some extent, is the residual effect of the no-growth movement back in the 1980s--the argument that you don't let builders put up their houses until they put in the infrastructure," he said. "They didn't want to burden the older communities. Then it was a mantra. Now it's a doctrine."

Add to that Proposition 13, he said. Approved by voters in 1978, the measure reduced property taxes by more than 50 percent by capping property tax rates at 1 percent and rolling back property values for tax purposes to the 1975-76 level.

"So the question is, how do you pay for all these things? Mechanisms had to be built in," he said.

The Cost Of Doing Business

Black Mountain Ranch's first phase, Santaluz, has contributed more than $100 million in hard infrastructure costs, according to company figures.

Improvements include the South Village Neighborhood Park, 15 miles of major road upgrades, a $3.2 million fire station, two $1 million sewage-pumping stations and a 25 million gallon reservoir, and widening of Carmel Valley Road/Black Mountain Road. Also, included is the completion of 6 miles of pipeline and stations, linking the region to the city's reclaimed water system, which will be used for irrigating the park and the Santaluz golf course.

Bill...

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