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Developer Fees and Public Safety
By Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske | April 7, 2007
The Council was asked to consider an ordinance establishing fees on developments in order to fund police and fire facilities that would be required as a direct result of such development.
We need to be clear about these fees: state law requires that they be used only for the construction of facilities needed as a result of the development. That’s why they are called “impact fees.”
The funds cannot be used for maintenance or operation of current facilities. So try as we might — even if we enact these fees, they can’t be used to fix the horrible conditions of some of our fire stations or the crowded condition of the eastside police station — unless of course the development is located in that area and the funds are used to construct new public safety facilities.
There was much discussion about when in the development process these fees can be imposed. Again, the law is quite clear: generally such fees are allowed only when they were imposed before building permits are issued and actual construction begins.
In my research on this issue, I just discovered that to avoid the problem of developers rushing to secure project approval before the new fees are in place, we should have passed a resolution requiring all future development to participate in the pending fee program. That would have provided notice last September when it was first considered that the fees were coming.
To ensure that we don’t have a rush to get projects approved before the 60 days pass (after we approve and before it becomes law) the Council needs to enact an “urgency ordinance” to ensure that there is not a gap in the applicability of the fees during the 60-day period before the regular ordinance becomes effective.
Finally, we need to add an inflation factor so that these fees can automatically increase as the cost of construction for new fire and police facilities rise.
We need these fees to help fund construction of new public safety facilities. We also need to find a source of funds to fix and repair those facilities that are so badly in need of repair.
Topics: Public Safety |
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