IPFNA_Final_Sept_06 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

hotel/motel development. While collecting at subdivision gives improvements ahead of the siteÔs occupancy, collecti on of single-family fees at time of subdivision would be incompatible with the option of assessing single-family homes on the basis of dwelling unit size, since the square footage of the home is not known at that There seem to be two reasonable alternatives for de aling with time of collection: (1) collect impact fees from all development at the time of building permit issuance; or (2) collect fees for new single-family lots at the time of final subdivisi on approval, and collect fees for all ot her development (including single- family houses on existing lots) at building permit. However, since impact fees are designed to address the developmentÔs impact on infrastructure, it may be pr eferable to assess the fees at the time of building permit approval, if projects will develop slowly. Hist orically, in HawaiÓi County, large numbers of single- family lots have been approved with no homes being built for an argue that if the homes are not built, there is no impact on existing infrastructure and thus the fee should not be collected until a building permit is issued. Assessment and Benefit Districts In an impact fee system, it is important to clearl y define the geographic area s within which impact fees will be collected an d within which the fees collected will be spent. There are really two types of geographic areas that serve different functions in an impact fee system: assessment districts and benefit districts. An assessment district, which may also be called a service area, defines the area within which a set of common capital facilities provides service, and for which a fee schedule based on average costs within that district is calculated. Benefit districts, on the o the fees collected must be spent. They ensure th at improvements funded with impact fees are constructed within reasonable proximity of the fee-paying developments to help ensure that developments benefit from the improvements. The assessment district is the geographic level at which Figure 2 the impact fee is calculated within a jurisdiction such as PROPOSED BENEFIT DISTRICTS a county. Calculating the fees at the county-wide level, based on the county-wide existing level of service, vastly simplifies the process. This was the approach used in the 1990 study as the basis of the CountyÔs current fair share assessments. Although some concerns were expressed that the cost of construction in the west is higher than in the east, cost data was not available to support differential fees, and all of the proposed impact fees were ca lculated on a county-wide basis. Concern has been expressed that a broad-based impact fee should be restricted to internal subdivision improvements like roads and parks, because otherwise owners of individual lots would not feel they were getting any benefit. However , impact fees must be used to expand capacity, and cannot be used to pave internal subdivision roads. H Ó C \I N A ÐI F S September 19, 2006, Page 18 AWAI I OUNTY NFRASTRUCTURE EEDS SSESSMENT MPACT EE TUDY