IPFNA_Ord Issues Memo_Mar_06 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

Infrastructure and Public Facility Needs Assessment St udy – Ordinance Issues Memorandum, March 1, 2006, page 8 in any district to be spent on coun ty-wide facilities. For example, landfill improvements should be funded from solid waste fees from all benefit dist ricts, since the CountyÔs one functioning landfill serves the entire island. H. AFFORDABLE HOUSING PROJECTS The key characteristic of an impact fee is that th e amount of the fee is proportional to the impact on facilities. To waive fees for affordable housi ng projects or other policy goals may weaken the defensibility of the impact fee system, since opponents could ar but an illegal tax disguised as a fee. Consequently, any waiver of fees for affordable housing or other purposes should be paid by other funding sources. I. PROGRESSIVE RESIDENTIAL FEES Figure 3 One thing that can be done to mitigate the effect on RESIDENTS BY UNIT SIZE affordable housing is to reduce fees for the smaller and more affordable units to the extent that it can be demonstrated that smaller units have less of an impact on the need for facilities. We recommend that the CountyÔs impact fees in corporate progressive fees for single-family homes that vary by the size of the dwelling unit. For the most part, the variation in fees will reflect the average number of people residing in units of varying sizes. The relationship determined in the Growth Policy Memorandum is illustrated in Figure 3. The observed variation is not dramatic, since even very small units tend to have an average of almost three residents, and very large units tend to have less than four residents. Nevertheless, these data do justify some variati on in fees by dwelling size. The graphed relationship shows that the larger the dwelling unit As can be seen in Table 4, a single-family detached unit with less than 1,000 square feet has an average of 2.78 persons, while a unit with 4,000 square f eet averages 3.68 residents. Fees directly based on population, such as park fees, would vary propor tionately with average household size, and fees indirectly based on population, such as road impact fees, would dwelling size categories shown below are suggested for use in th 13276 research blvd , ste 208 austin tx 78750 phone 512 258 7347 fax 512 258 9994 email clancy@duncanplan.com # # # #