Land for a proposed sewage treatment plant may be deeded to the Lagunitas School District by owners of French Ranch, a proposed 32-home subdivision in San Geronimo.
The land transfer between the school district and French Ranch would be part of the plan between the Valley neighbors to build and share a sewage facility on one acre at Sir Francis Drake Boulevard and Lagunitas School Road.
In building the facility, each neighbor would save some of the cost of building and operating sewage plants of their own.
The savings could result from state laws allowing the school district to claim exemptions from more than $21,000 in county permit and reporting fees. Whether the project does indeed qualify for the exemptions remains an open question.
School trustees last week invoked these state exemption laws in declaring the district independent of county building and zoning provisions, and placing all district building projects under state jurisdiction.
However, state and county officials this week questioned whether a subdivision can avoid county fees since the state exemption applies only to school districts. Officials also questioned whether a sewage treatment plant would be considered a classroom facility, a requirement for exemption.
The subdivision, which will pay only a fourth of the sewage plant's construction costs but most of its operating costs, would also benefit somewhat if the exemption is allowed.
The school district has two failing septic systems more than 20 years old, school officials said. When compared to building and maintaining a new septic-tank system, the proposed sewage plant is slated to save the district roughly $10,000 in annual maintenance costs.
And French Ranch developer Bruce Burman has called the plant an advantage in designing lots and selling the homes in his subdivision.
After lengthy negotiations with Burman and state officials, trustees said they expect to discuss the sewage project next week and vote on it in October.
The classroom construction (and perhaps a district-only sewage treatment system), would be covered under the exemption, officials said.
The exemptions and fee waivers - contained in Government Code Section 53090 and Code 6301 - may save roughly $19,000 in county use-permit fees and $2,600 in application fees for both the classroom and sewage plant construction.
The exemptions, he said, quoting the code, don't apply to "non-classroom facilities, including, but not limited to, warehouses, administrative buildings, automotive storage, and repair buildings."
Said Detwiler: "Ultimately, it's a legal question: Is a sewer plant a classroom or non-classroom facility."
Marin planner Scott Davidson said the district's junior high campus construction clearly qualifies for a state exemption. So too would a sewage disposal system, which meets the criteria of an "incidental" use by a classroom.
County Counsel Tom Hendricks, however, remarked that the exemptions would apply to a school facility only - not one shared with French or anyone else. "If [the sewage plant] would be used by the school and the community, " he said, "it would be subject to county regulation in my opinion...The statute makes it very clear with respect to school purposes."
In other sewage developments: