The Ventura Unified School District must pay $83,000 in city park and traffic fees for a new bus barn at its Stanley Avenue headquarters, the City Council decided early today.

By a 4-2 vote, the council rejected an appeal by the district to have the city waive the impact fees routinely applied to private housing, commercial and industrial projects.

State and city laws allow fee exemptions for classroom facilities, city staff members said. But the exemptions do not apply to administrative buildings, warehouses, or maintenance facilities like the one the district plans to build at its headquarters at 255 Stanley Ave., city officials said.

It was a tough decision, council members said, to force payment from an agency its considers an important partner and one that is struggling with its own financial challenges.

"We know the school district is having budget issues like the city," Mayor Christy Weir said moments before the vote. "This puts you in a bind . and us in a bind. Sorry."

There was no public comment. The vote came after midnight Monday. Councilmen Jim Monahan and Brian Brennan cast the two no votes. Councilman Ed Summers was absent.

The district must pay $77,861 in traffic mitigation fees, which will help pay for road and transportation improvements. The district also owes $5,391 in fees for park and recreation facilities, based on the 41,470 square feet of new building area and the city's lowest commercial rate of $0.13 per square foot, records show.

School officials tried to argue the fee amount was too high for the level of traffic that will be generated by the bus barn. They also said district employees will have access to their own recreational amenities at the Stanley Avenue headquarters, the former home of Kinko's until it moved to Dallas in 2002.

City attorneys, however, told the council it didn't have the legal discretion to waive the fees under the city's current ordinance, unless the council wanted to change the rules. "We have a pretty narrow box here," Councilman Carl Morehouse said.

Trying to soften the blow, the council agreed at the last minute that the school district could get future fee credits if it completes a master plan for the entire Stanley Avenue property, the City Clerk's Office said.