Should College Station use impact fees?
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
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Information, perspective and discussion on quality of life in the Brazos Valley
4 comments:
Impact fees to build Arrington and Decatur roads in S. College Station on the west side of Hwy 6 would have been a good place to start. The roads were first justified to encourage St Joseph to locate there. After St Joseph decided to locate on the east side of Hwy 6 instead, the Arrington/Decatur project took on a life of its own. Landowners "generously" donated the land to build the road, but the taxpayers of College Station will be hit with the large bill to build the roads. And what for? Well, keep watching the area and you will likely see a large commercial development subsidized in large part by College Station taxpayers who thought they were getting a major medical center on the west side. Fooled us again!
Uh, College Station already does use impact fees...
Anon said...
"Uh, College Station already does use impact fees..."
To finish that though,
...that do not come close to covering the cost of new development, much less proving incentive for infill development.
College Station does have some impact fees. They are tied to specific water and sewer line extensions. The issue to be discussed is whether to expand the use of impact fees. There are two key issues to discuss.
First, should we use city wide utility impact fees? City wide impact fees allow the City to charge a fee to new development to offset capital costs incured by the City to make utility capacity expansions that serve the new developments. Those fees could be used to pay for treatment plan expansions and new water wells. I think they are a good idea.
Second, should we implement transportation impact fees? College Station does not do these at this time. The transportation impact fees must be geographically related to a particular facility. The impact fee would be charged to new development within a 2 mile radius of the new facility. For example, a fee could be charged for new development within 2 miles of the new Arrington/Decatur project. Developments that have already been permitted would be exempt. Not all projects would be a good fit for transportation impact fees but they should be used where in currently undeveloped areas. Could be OK but it could promote sprawl.
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