|
Development Impact Fees
Impact Fee Studies or Infrastructure Financing Plans are prepared
by the Planning Department with
assistance from all of the other departments that are involved in
planning and managing the construction of capital facilities. Each
department provides estimates of future facility needs and costs.
These are used by the Planning Department to calculate impact fees
for different land uses in the various impact fee areas.An inventory
of capital facilities in each of the fee areas is maintained and
updated by the Planning Department, with new information provided
by the other departments as future infrastructure projects are altered,
initiated or eliminated. The Planning
Department is also responsible for developing the land use and
population projections that will allow future infrastructure costs
to be allocated to all uses at the time the development is complete
(generally buildout). Impact Fee Studies or Infrastructure Financing Plans are essentially
compilations of the best information available on future population
growth, land use development and capital facility requirements.
View a diagram showing the process of
calculating impact fees .
Only capital facilities and related equipment inventories that
directly benefit future residential and nonresidential development
are included in the plans. The facilities
are all permanent City of Phoenix facilities that will last at
least one year and generally have life cycles of more than twenty
years. They must also meet minimum size or capacity requirements.
For example, only water transmission
mains of 16" diameter and larger are included in capital
facility costs. Capital facilities that are owned and operated
by entities other than the City of Phoenix are not included in
the inventories used to prepare the plans.
Facilities required by school boards, State or Federal agencies,
or other public or government agencies, for example, are excluded.
In some cases, such as the construction of interchanges or bridges
involving both Phoenix and the Maricopa County Department of Transportation
or Phoenix and the Arizona Department of Transportation, impact
fees may be used to jointly fund facilities that are theoretically
state or county responsibilities. The specific capital facilities
included in the plans are:
- Equipment repair
- Fire protection
- Libraries
- Open space
- Parks and trails
- Police
- Roadway facilities
- Solid waste disposal
- Storm drainage
- Water and wastewater
If the facility has not yet been built, current, present-value
estimates of design, construction, land acquisition and other
costs are utilized. These estimates are based on recent experience
with construction bids or land acquisition costs, or on information
provided by consultants. If the facility has already been built and was
designed and built with excess capacity to provide services for
future development, and if bond debt for the facility remains,
this debt is allocated to the future users. Generally, the remaining
principal and interest payments on the bond debt are included
in the impact fee calculations. An existing capital facility without
bond debt would not be included in impact fee calculations.
Impact Fee Studies or Infrastructure Financing Plans use projections on how undeveloped
land will eventually be used, based on seven categories defined
in the City Code:
- Single-family housing
- Multifamily housing
- Retail
- Office
- Industrial
- Public and quasi-public
- Other nonresidential
Simply stated, credits are reductions in development impact fees charged to developments resulting from developer contributions, payments, construction or dedication of facilities. If a developer builds facilities
that are in the Impact Fee Study or Infrastructure Financing Plan, he/she can apply for
credit against his/her impact fees. Credits are based on costs identified
in the plans, not actual costs incurred by the developer
in building the facility. Roadway facilities, water and wastewater credits are the
most common types of credits claimed by developers of large commercial
or residential projects because such projects often require significant
expansions to the roadway facility network and water and wastewater networks. Credits
for equipment repair, fire, police, library and solid waste facilities
are more rarely obtained.
Last modified on
05/28/2009 13:28:02
|