Nine model homes at KB Home's Southridge development in Fontana slipped through a gap in the city's special tax rules simply because of when their building permits were issued. The Fontana City Council voted 4-1 to close that gap, amending the tax formula for Community Facilities District No. 117 so all 255 planned home sites, including the nine models, will share responsibility for the district's bonded debt.
A Narrow Fix With Several Moving Parts
According to the Fontana Herald News, the council's original special-tax formula for the district defined developed property as anything with a building permit issued on or after January 1, 2026. The trouble is that KB Home pulled permits for nine model homes shortly before that date, meaning those units technically fell outside the tax base under the original language. The amendment approved corrects this by substituting January 1, 2025, as the initial building permit date in the rate and method of apportionment.
Senior accountant Fabiola Palacios said the change itself is narrow but still required multiple procedural steps, according to the same report. That included calling and conducting a special election, certifying the results, and adopting formal resolutions before the amendment could take effect. City Clerk Germaine Key certified the special-election results and said the outcome favored the amendment, per the Herald News account.
Why KB Home Alone Got to Vote
Because Community Facilities District No. 117 covers largely undeveloped land, the special election wasn't a typical ballot measure open to residents. When fewer than 12 registered voters live within a proposed Mello-Roos district in the 90 days before a public hearing, the election is instead conducted as a landowner vote, with landowners receiving one vote per acre they own, according to the San Diego County Assessor. The election therefore was conducted as a landowner vote rather than a resident ballot.
The broader legal framework traces back to the Mello-Roos Community Facilities Act of 1982, which allows California local governments to issue bonds backed by annual special parcel taxes to pay for public facilities with a useful life of at least five years, requiring a two-thirds vote by either voters or landowners, per the California Debt Financing Guide. Community facilities districts like Fontana's are Mello-Roos districts designed to finance infrastructure for new development, with special taxes passed on to property owners through annual assessments once homes are built and sold.
An $11 Million Price Tag for Streets and Parks
District No. 117, officially known as City of Fontana Community Facilities District No. 117 (Southridge), carries planned bonds of $11 million to fund public infrastructure including streets, storm drains, sewers, and parks, according to a report from MotionCount. That debt service, along with ongoing maintenance costs, will ultimately be paid through special taxes levied on future homeowners within the district rather than by KB Home or the city's general fund. The council formed the district in April, according to a city staff report, before taking up this technical rate amendment five months later.
Councilmember Jesse Sandoval cast the lone dissenting vote both on the resolution authorizing the special election and on the subsequent resolution formally determining the change was legally authorized.
What Homebuyers Are Signing Up For
KB Home is marketing the Southridge project, where expected home prices are about $606,000 to $640,000. The development is north of Southridge Park and falls within the Fontana Unified School District.
Fontana has an estimated population exceeding 214,000, while its median household income was $102,821 in 2024, per Census Bureau figures.
Fontana City Council meetings are held at 2 p.m. on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month at the Steelworker's Auditorium at the Fontana Lewis Library & Technology Center, and are livestreamed on KFONTV.
