PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A group of concerned parents wants Portland to start using funds from developers to build new schools in an effort to undue the burden on overcrowded campuses as the city’s population continues to grow.

The Coalition of Concerned Voting Parents has gathered over 1,000 signatures on a petition which urges the city to use specific developer funds for school expansions.

“Providing an appropriate budget for schooling is very important,” parent Joanna Nemeth, who is interested in the petition, said. “If you don’t have the appropriate number of teachers and students, you run the risk of missing things.”

According to the petition, developers are required to pay the city a one-time System Development Charges fee of $15,000-$20,000 for each residential unit built.

The fees “offset the impact [the] project will have on the City’s infrastructure of storm and sanitary sewer systems, parks and recreation facilities, water and street systems.”

Petitioners complain that while the high fees help the city’s funding of “the Parks Bureau, Sewer, Water and Transportation… none of it goes to schools!”

“This money is paid before a building even breaks the ground,” it continues. “The City already has this money! These funds dry up when the [development] boom ends. These are not recurring revenues that can be applied to the building school capacity.”

Portland Parks & Recreation collected more than $22 million in SDC fees last year.

But according to city leaders, the state prohibits the use of those funds for schools.

In some other states, every time a builder puts in more homes they have to give money to build more schools as well, Rep. Julie Parrish told KOIN 6 News.

It’s something The Coalition of Concerned Voting Parents believes is vital in order to ensure the city’s infrastructure becomes sustainable as the population grows.

“We have just learned that the city intends to develop the 13 acres currently occupied by the U.S. Post Office facility, creating a dense urban neighborhood with thousands of new residents,” the petition claims. “But somehow there is no plan… for any increased school capacity for any of the families in these growth areas.”

PPS alone says it anticipates thousands of new students in the coming years.

Rep. Parrish says diverting SDC funds is something she would be open to discussing. However, even if the city was able to divert some funds, she says it likely wouldn’t be enough to build a new school, which can cost upwards of $26 million to complete.

Oregon law does allow cities to collect an excise tax at just over $1 per each square foot of development. Last year, PPS received more than $6 million from that tax.

At that rate, Rep. Parrish says it would take PPS around 6 years to amass adequate funds for the construction of a new school, and that doesn’t include the cost of land.