City impact fee collections dip in 2015

Collection of city impact fees dipped in fiscal year 2015 after having increased the previous year.

City Finance Director Dana Smith said impact fees for paved trails, park maintenance building, stormwater, water and wastewater all exceeded budget expectations, but impact fees for the Emergency Service Center and City Hall only totaled 87 percent and 82 percent of the anticipated revenue collections for the year.

However, Smith said, fiscal year 2016 is already seeing an improvement.

“In conjunction with the increase in local construction activity, year-to-date impact fee collections are trending very positively and currently exceed the anticipated revenue to-date,” she said.

Impact fees are one-time charges for new development that increases the demand for city services. It applies to new units in subdivisions as well as new homes built on single lots and some remodeling. The city can spend the fees for public improvements, including, planning, site improvements, land acquisition, construction or engineering.

The city collected about $98,000 less in impact fees during fiscal year 2015. It collected a total of about $738,000 in fiscal year 2014 and about $640,000 in fiscal year 2015.

The city’s first impact fees went into effect in November of 2007. Since that time, the city has collected about $3 million.

For the first time the City Hall impact fee cash balance of about $385,000 was transferred to the City Hall and parking structure construction fund due to the start of the construction project.

The city spent almost $500,000 in wastewater impact fee funds during fiscal year 2015. Projects using the funds included the Highway 93 W utility improvements, the Birch Point lift station design and the 2014 wastewater system project, according to Smith.

The impact fees for paved trails continue to be used for expansion of the trail system, but the majority of the cash has been set aside for fiscal year 2016 to fund a portion of the Skye Park bridge project, which has a price tag of more than $1 million. The funding for the project is a mix of tax increment finance funds, grants and money from the city’s water fund.

The city is also planning for fiscal year 2016 to use $90,000 in stormwater impact fees for the Monegan stormwater project.