COLLEGE STATION, Tex. (KBTX) - The College Station City Council is reviewing possible changes to their impact fees. At Thursday night's meeting they are expected to direct staff how to move forward.
In November 2016, they implemented road impact fees as a way to address future challenges with infrastructure and growth. Now discussions are looking at possible changes in those rates. College Station City Council Member John Crompton wants to raise it to the maximum rate possible.
Developers are concerned that will kill their projects and future growth opportunities.
"If they adopt these maximum impact fees that councilman's presenting or pushing for, it will completely devastate Midtown," said
James Murr, College Station Midtown Managing Principal.
So far about 50 homes have been built in Midtown, an area east of Highway 6 and south of Rock Prairie Road. If a maximum rate on impact fees were put in place new homes there would have a $16,016 fee, while in more established parts of town it would only be about a $4,200 fee. Fees in growing areas, including the city's south and southeast sides, would be much higher than in established parts of town for retail, restaurants and office space.
"It will stop the development of Midtown. It’s over $44 million in proposed fees for our build-out. It all rolls down to the consumer," said Murr.
Development in Midtown is slowing down already because of coronavirus. Murr said higher fees would be a major setback.
“If they’re going to increase fees and increase the cost of housing for everyone, at least do it flat across the whole city," he said
"Impact fees are designed to make new growth pay for itself. Instead the existing taxpayers have to pay for itself," said council member John Crompton.
Crompton believes higher fees won't stop growth. He said the current fee level won't bring in enough money for the estimated more than $130 million in capital improvement projects.
"In College Station, our south College Station road plan is predicated on raising $136 million from impact fees. They are currently set at $12 million over the period of time. So there is a $124 million hole in the budget and so the challenge we have is where is that $124 million to come from," said Crompton. He said they'll also look at credits for developers when they go above and beyond their development requirements.
Mayor Karl Mooney said Thursday he doesn't think one part of town should bare the brunt of development.
"I’ve received, I would estimate, somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 emails in the last week regarding impact fees. Many of them are from developers and realtors and other folks in town," said Mooney.
"Tonight we’re just simply going to be talking about it providing some direction to staff whether or not we want to bring this up and actually talk about changing the percentages and how impact fees are assessed," said Mooney.
Murr thinks there are still questions to be answered.
“For me to develop, it costs four times the fees in the new proposed max fee schedule. Four times the fees here than by campus in the student area. Why," wondered Murr.
Council members said action could happen at their next meeting later this month or it could be pushed further down the road.
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Developers worry about big changes to College Station impact fees - KBTX
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