HomeMy WebLinkAboutIPFNA_Ord Issues Memo_Mar_06
MEMORANDUM
TO: Chris Yuen, County of HawaiÓi Planning Department
FROM: Clancy Mullen, Duncan Associates
DATE: March 1, 2006
RE: Infrastructure and Public Facility Needs Assessment Study Ï Ordi
The purpose of this memorandum is to present th e consultant teamÔs recommendations on major policy
issues that will be involved in implementing an impact fee ordinance for HawaiÓi County. A glossary
of impact fee terms is also attached as an appendix.
Impact fees are subject to specific re quirements that do not apply to ot her types of fees or taxes. The
courts have developed guidelines for constitutionally valid impact fees, based on a Ñrational nexusÒ that
must exist between the regulatory fee or exaction and the activi
I. SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS
A. Types of Fees. The proposed impact fees are for roads, parks, fire, police, s
wastewater facilities.
B. Treatment of Existing Lots. Instead of making a recommendation, we have laid out a number
of alternatives in the following discussion, which are briefly s
Option 1: Existing lots of record can build one dwelling unit without pay
Option 2: The County pays the fees for existing lots of record to build o
Option 3: Owners of existing lots of record ha ve 2-5 years after ordinance adoption during
which they could apply for a building permit for one dwelling unit without paying impact fees.
Option 4: Exclude the Puna and KaÓ u Districts, where most of the existing lots are located,
from the impact fee system, which means no impact fees would be
impact fee money would be spent there.
C. Time of Assessment/Collection. It is our recommendation that the impact fees should be
collected at the time the building permit is issue d. Impact fees could be assessed (meaning that
applicants for development approvals are given notice of the obligation to pay impact fees) at an earlier
time (e.g., subdivision approval).
D. Pre-Ordinance Credits. If developers have paid fair share assessments or made in-kind
contributions for projects that have not been comp leted, impact fees should be reduced or eliminated
for any remaining development in those projects.
13276 research blvd , ste 208 austin tx 78750 phone 512 258 7347 fax 512 258 9994 email clancy@duncanplan.com
# # # #
Infrastructure and Public Facility Needs Assessment St udy – Ordinance Issues Memorandum, March 1, 2006, page 2
E. Post-Ordinance Reimbursements. If developers are required or agree to dedicate land or make
eligible improvements for impact fee facilities after the effective date of the ordinance, they should be
reimbursed from impact fees for the value of those improvements.
F. Assessment Districts. All fees should be calculated county-wide and assessed with a
county-wide fee schedule.
G. Benefit Districts. Fees should be earmarked to be spent on the side of the island
which they were collected (see Figure 1). Park fees should have
H. Affordable Housing Projects. Rather than waive fees for a ffordable housing projects, the County
intends to appropriate other funding to pay the impact fee for s
I. Progressive Residential Fees. Single-family fees should vary by the size of the dwelling uni
reduce fees for smaller units.
J. Cost Recovery. The impact fee study will calculate maximum f ees that can be charged. Preliminary
analysis indicates that the total maximum impact fees will exceed the current total fair share assessments.
The County will be able to adopt impact fees at any percentage up to 100 per cent of the maximum fees.
K. Phase-in Period. The recommended effective date of the impact fee ordinance is one year after
the adoption date. During the one-year phase-in peri od, the fair share assessments would continue to
be in effect. Following this initial phase-in period , the fees could be gradually increased up to the
ultimate desired Ñcost recoveryÒ level over a year or more.
13276 research blvd , ste 208 austin tx 78750 phone 512 258 7347 fax 512 258 9994 email clancy@duncanplan.com
# # # #
Infrastructure and Public Facility Needs Assessment St udy – Ordinance Issues Memorandum, March 1, 2006, page 3
II. DETAILED DISCUSSION
A. TYPES OF FEES
The proposed impact fees would replace the current fair share assessments for roads, parks, fire, police
and solid waste facilities. An additional fee is proposed for w
service is available.
B. TREATMENT OF EXISTING LOTS
The most critical issue is how to tr eat existing lots of record. In most jurisdictions that have adopted
impact fees, how to treat existing lots is a minor i ssue. Generally, the supply of such lots is limited, and
if they are grandfathered or otherwise exempted from impact fees the overall effect on impact fee
revenues is short-lived and relatively minor. However , this is not the case in HawaiÓi County. A recent
analysis indicates that there are about 64,000 undeve loped residential lots in the county. This exceeds
the total number of housing units on the island at the time of the 2000 census (62,674). Of the roughly
2,000 permits of single-family detached units issued by the County annually, it has been estimated that
about one-third of these new homes are being built on lots that
The perception exists that many of these lots are owned by local residents who intend to build a h
for themselves in these older subdivisions. While this is undoubtedly true to some extent, it is far from
the typical case. An analysis of property tax reco rds indicates that only about 14 percent of existing
vacant residential lots are owned solely by Big Island residents, and two-thirds are under the exc
ownership of non-Big Island residents (see Table 1) . The remaining 17 percen t are owned by multiple
owners with some Big Island resident participation, but it is likely that most of these lots are being held
as an investment, rather than as a future home si te. The investment motive probably holds for a good
number of the Big Island owners as well. So the number owned by
build a home on them is probably considerably less than 9,000 lots. To put that number in perspective,
it represents less than five years of single-family building permit activity in HawaiÓi County at current
development rates.
Table 1
OWNERSHIP OF VACANT RESIDENTIAL LOTS
Ownership# of LotsPercent
Big Island-Single Owner9,12314.20%
Big Island-Multiple Owners1750.30%
Mixed Big Island/Oth er Owners10,74716.70%
No Big Island Owners44,17568.80%
Total Vacant Residential Lots64,220100.00%
Source: HawaiÓi County Real Property Tax Administrator, January 7, 2006
(data base excludes lots that are (1 ) over 20 acres, (2) already improved
with $10,000 or more worth of yard or outbuilding improvements, or (3)
commercial, industrial or resort hotel tax classifications or zo
roadway, governmental and utility parcels.
13276 research blvd , ste 208 austin tx 78750 phone 512 258 7347 fax 512 258 9994 email clancy@duncanplan.com
# # # #
Infrastructure and Public Facility Needs Assessment St udy – Ordinance Issues Memorandum, March 1, 2006, page 4
There are several alternative for dealing with this issue. Four
Option 1. One of the options that is under considerati on is to allow any existing lot of record to be
developed with one dwelling unit without paying an impact fee. Any additional dwelling units or any
nonresidential development on the lot would be require d to pay an impact fee. A concern here is that
if the amount of development not paying the fee is large, the impact fees will not be sufficient
provide the level of service that the fees are intended to provi
Option 2. Instead of waiving fees for the first dwelling unit on existing lots of record, an alternative
would be for the County to use other funding sources to pay the impact fees for a single-family dwelling
unit on existing lots. This approach ensures that the funding in the impact fee account is sufficient to
maintain the level of service on which the impact f ees are based. The County would not need to pay
fees for existing lots for which fair share assessmen ts had been paid, since the credit for such payments
would likely offset any impact fees assessed.
Assuming total impact fees of $10,000 per unit and that 1,000 of the 2,000 si ngle-family houses being
built each year are on existing lots of record for wh ich fair share assessments had not been paid, a $10
million annual appropriation would be required. Since the likely source of the appropriation would be
property taxes, and since new development paying th e fee would be generating some of those property
tax revenues, the fees would need to be reduced by a credit that takes this into account to avoid double-
charging (new development paying the fee should not ha ve to pay the full share of their costs, while also
having to pay for part of the costs attributable to new development that is having their fee paid by the
County).
Option 3. An alternative to a permanen t waiver of fees for the first dwelling unit is to make it a
temporary transition provision. Fo r example, the state impact fee enabling act in Texas allows own
of lots that were subdivided prior to the impact fee ordinance to pull a building permit within one year
following adoption of the ordinance without being requi red to pay the fee. A longer time period than
one year could be considered, but it should probabl y not exceed five years. The transition exemption
could be a blanket one that applies to all building perm its for all existing lots, or a more limited one such
as the one-unit-per lot approach described above. If structured as a transition provision, the effects of
the exemption would be minimal when viewed from a long-term perspective. For example, assume that
a park impact fee includes a three-year Ñgrace peri odÒ during which fees are not charged on one unit
per lot. In the first year, none of the 2,000 single-f amily permits is assessed a fee, while virtually all 3,000
multi-family units pay. In the next two years, th e number of units exempted would likely drop as the
supply of newly-created lots declines, so perhaps a to tal of 4,000 single-family units would be exempted.
Over the first ten years of the program, about 50,000 units would be built, of which less than 10 percent
would be exempted due to the transition provision. The percentage would be even less for road, fire
and police impact fees, which also apply to nonresidential devel
Option 4. A fourth alternative would be to exclude the area where most of the existing lots are located
(i.e., Puna and KaÓ u Districts) from the impact fee system. Exclusion means that no impact fees would
be collected in this area, and no impact fees would be spent there. Exclusion would not have to be
permanent. For example, for Kansas City, Missour i, we first developed arter ial street impact fees for
the area north of the Missouri River, before preparin g impact fees for the southern part of the city. In
each area, the older part of the city that was anne xed prior to 1950 was excluded from the impact fee
system.
13276 research blvd , ste 208 austin tx 78750 phone 512 258 7347 fax 512 258 9994 email clancy@duncanplan.com
# # # #
Infrastructure and Public Facility Needs Assessment St udy – Ordinance Issues Memorandum, March 1, 2006, page 5
C. TIME OF COLLECTION/ASSESSMENT
The current fair share assessments are imposed duri ng the rezoning process, and are collected prior to
final subdivision approval for single-family lots and prior to site plan approv al for multi-family and
hotel/motel development. Collection at time of subdivision woul
recommendation that single-family homes be assessed on the basis of dwelling unit size, since the square
footage of the home is not known at that time. While there is no i nherent reason why multi-family and
nonresidential fees could not be coll ected at time of site plan approval, site plan approval is not required
for single-family units, an d it would seem to be simpler and more administratively efficien
all impact fees at the same point in the developm ent process. For these reasons, we recommend that
the impact fees be collected at the time of building permit for
While the fees should be collected at building pe rmit, they could be assessed at an earlier time.
Assessment can mean several things. It can simply be notice tha
building permit, based on the fee schedules that are in place when the building permit is applied for.
Or it can mean that the fee schedule in place at th e time of assessment is the one that will apply to the
property. Assessment of fees at subdivision would e ssentially be the same as waiving impact fees for
any existing lot that was already subdivided at the time of ordinance adoption or that could be
developed without subdivision.
D. PRE-ORDINANCE CREDITS
Some building permits will be issued in projects for which developers have already paid fair share
assessments. To prevent double-charging, it will be necessary to either reimburse the developer, or to
reduce or eliminate the impact fees that are charged for those b
passed along the cost of the fair share assessment to the extent possible in the sale of the lots,
reimbursing the developers would have the effect of handing them windfall prof its. A better alternative
might be to reduce or eliminate the impact fees due to be paid a
We recommend the following approach. Prior to th e effective date of the or dinance, County planning
staff would need to identify all parcels or subdivisi ons for which fair share assessments have been paid,
and the amounts paid for each type of facility. If the project is bu ilt-out, no credits would be needed.
If no development has yet occurred, the credit would be the amount paid, adjusted for inflation since
the time of payment. If building permits have al ready been issued for a particular subdivision, but some
development potential remains. the credit would be the amount paid, adjusted for inflation, less wh
the subdivision would have generated in impact fees had the fee schedule been in place. The resulting
credit amounts would be available to offset impact fees otherwise due for building permits issued for
the applicable parcels or within the subdivisions on a first-come, first-served basis until the credits are
exhausted. The amount of the credits would be annually adjusted
that is used for the impact fees. A time limit, suc h as ten years, could be imposed on the use of the
credits.
Fair share assessments that were imposed as a condit ion of zoning approval, but have not yet been paid
by the effective date of the impact fee ordinance (b ecause the property has not been subdivided or site-
planned) would be replaced by the obligation to pay impact fees
Another issue that must be addressed is cred its for developers who made impact fee-eligible
contributions prior to the impact fee ordinance, bu t who did not receive credit against fair share
13276 research blvd , ste 208 austin tx 78750 phone 512 258 7347 fax 512 258 9994 email clancy@duncanplan.com
# # # #
Infrastructure and Public Facility Needs Assessment St udy – Ordinance Issues Memorandum, March 1, 2006, page 6
assessments for the value of those contributions. We recommend
types of improvements in much the same way as credits for fair s
E. POST-ORDINANCE REIMBURSEMENTS
For fair share assessments and pre-ordinance contri butions, we have recommended credits that run with
the land rather than developer reimbursements. So it may make sense to use the same approach when
dealing with new developer exactions that occur after the impact fee ordinance is in place. However,
an alternative approach is at least worthy of cons ideration, since the fair share credits affect a limited
number of parcels and will expire in a certain number of years.
The alternative approach is to reimburse developers who make eligible improvements with impact fees
collected from other developers who do not. This approach was pioneered by Raleigh, North Carolina
when it established road and park impact fees in 1 987, and although it has not been widely emulated by
other jurisdictions, we think it has much to recommend it. Rale
agreement with each developer who makes an impact fee-eligible improvement. If the improvement is
an expensive one, the reimbursement is scheduled to occur over a five-year period, subject to available
funding. The City also categorizes each developer contribution as Priority I or Priority II. Priority I
projects include dedication of land or right-of-w ay and projects in the CityÔs five-year capital
improvements plan. Each year, the City sets aside a percentage of impact fees collected in each benefit
zone (20 percent of park fees and 27 percent of road fees) into reimbursement accounts. If the
reimbursement account has sufficient funds to pay all reimbursements owed for that year, all developers
with outstanding reimbursements for that year receive full payme
reimburse all developers, developers with Priority I im provements are reimbursed first. If funds are still
insufficient, each Priority I developer receives a pro rata share of his reimbursement amount, with the
unpaid amount rolled over to the next year.
The reimbursement approach used by Raleigh is considerably simpl
approach, and it also has the advantage that a predi ctable percentage of impact fee revenue is available
to the local government to program for priority im provements. The first advantage would not be as
pronounced for HawaiÓi County for the first few years , since staff would need to track fair share
assessment credits for a number of years. However, those credit
properties and would disappear after a few years. After that, the collection of fees at the building permit
counter would be automatic for all permits, with no need to check to see if cred its are available to offset
the fees. The second advantage would also be so mewhat attenuated in the first few years, since fair
share credits would reduce the amount of fees collected, but the County would be guaranteed that
subsequent developer contributions would not consume more than a
impact fee revenues.
Our recommendation is that the County consider using a reimbursement approach similar to RaleighÔs
for post-ordinance developer contributions.
F. ASSESSMENT DISTRICTS
In an impact fee system, it is important to clearl y define the geographic areas within which impact fees
will be collected and 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. Assessment districts, which may also be calle d service areas, define the area within which a set
of common capital facilities provides service, and fo r which a fee schedule based on average costs within
13276 research blvd , ste 208 austin tx 78750 phone 512 258 7347 fax 512 258 9994 email clancy@duncanplan.com
# # # #
Infrastructure and Public Facility Needs Assessment St udy – Ordinance Issues Memorandum, March 1, 2006, page 7
that district is calculated. It is recommended that there be on
In other words, all fees will be ca lculated on a county-wide basis. While there may be some geogra
variations in land and construction costs, any addi tional accuracy in fee calculations would be offset by
greater complexity and administrative difficulty.
G. BENEFIT DISTRICTS
Benefit districts represent an area within which the fees collec
improvements funded with impact fees are constru cted within reasonable proximity of the fee-paying
developments as a means of helping to ensure that
Figure 1
developments benefit from the improvements.
PROPOSED EAST/WEST DISTRICTS
Concern has been expressed th at 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 g etting any benefit. However,
It would not be practical to make every subdivision its own
benefit district, as some of them will have little
development. Most types of facilities serve a much larger
area. Given the size of the is land, it may be necessary at a
minimum to have East and West benefit districts for all
types of facilities. Any benefit district boundaries should
match judicial district boundaries to the extent practical.
Suggested benefit district boundaries for roads, fire, police
and solid waste facilities are illustrated in Figure 1. The
proposed east/west benefit district boundaries conform with
existing judicial district boundaries. In proposing the benefit
district boundaries, the Consultant attempted to balance
current population and projected population growth.
Figure 2
Since parks tend to serve a smaller geographic areas than
PROPOSED PARK DISTRICTS
other facilities, it is recommended that the County create
several benefit districts for park impact fees. The County
currently restricts fair share assessments to the judicial
district in which they were collected. There are nine
judicial districts, and these were utilized in developing five
proposed park development districts shown in Figure 2.
Some of the judicial distri cts were combined since fewer
benefit districts provide greater flexibility in the
expenditure of fees collected. In developing the districts,
the consultant looked at existing parks and development
patterns and combined several districts to create five park
and recreation impact fee benefit districts.
Wastewater impact fees could be subject to either the
east/west or the five benefit districts, but would need to
be further restricted to be spent only to improve the
system that the fee payer is physically connected to.
Language in the ordinance would allow revenues collected
13276 research blvd , ste 208 austin tx 78750 phone 512 258 7347 fax 512 258 9994 email clancy@duncanplan.com
# # # #
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
# # # #
Infrastructure and Public Facility Needs Assessment St udy – Ordinance Issues Memorandum, March 1, 2006, page 9
Table 2
SINGLE-FAMILY HOUSEHOLD SIZE BY SQUARE FEET
Approximate Average
midpoint Household
(sq. ft.) Size
Dwelling Size Category
Less than 1,000 sq. ft.750 2.84
1,000 - 1,499 sq. ft.1,250 2.95
1,500 - 1,999 sq. ft.1,750 3.06
2,000 - 2,999 sq. ft.2,500 3.23
3,000 - 3,999 sq. ft.3,500 3.45
4,000 sq. ft. or more4,500 3.68
Source: Average household size is derived by substituting the midpoint
solving for y in the equation illustrated in Figure 3.
J. COST RECOVERY
The impact fee study will calculate maximum fees that can be charged. Preliminary analysis indicates
that the total maximum impact fees will exceed the curre nt total fair share assessments. The fair share
assessments are compared with California and national average impact fees in Table 4. HawaiÓi CountyÔs
assessments for roads and parks are significantly higher than the national average, although they are right
in line with average fees charged in California. The total fair share assessment in HawaiÓi County
par with what the average jurisdiction in Californi a charges in impact fees for the same facilities.
Table 3
FAIR SHARE ASSESSMENTS PER SINGLE-FAMILY UNIT
Facility HawaiÓi CA Avg.NatÔl Avg.
Co.
Roads$4,281 $3,922$2,037
Parks$4,818 $4,856$1,810
Fire$459 $584$329
Police$232 $843$302
Solid Waste$201 na$179
Total$9,991 $10,205$4,657
Source: HawaiÓi County fair share assessmen ts; California and national average
fees from Duncan Associates survey, January 4, 2006
The maximum fees that will be calculated in the im pact fee study will represent the full cost to provide
new development with the existing le vel of service of capital facilities. However, the County will
to adopt impact fees at some percentage less than 100 percent of
K. PHASE-IN PERIOD
Following the adoption of the impact fee ordinance, th ere will need to be a period of time before the
impact fees actually go into effect and being to be collected. Some delay is necessary in order to give
development projects already well underway time to apply for bui
projects. County staff will also need time to put the administrative processes in place to implement the
13276 research blvd , ste 208 austin tx 78750 phone 512 258 7347 fax 512 258 9994 email clancy@duncanplan.com
# # # #
Infrastructure and Public Facility Needs Assessment St udy – Ordinance Issues Memorandum, March 1, 2006, page 10
ordinance. After discussions with staff, it is reco mmended that the impact fees go into effect one year
from the date of ordinance adoption. The fair share assessments would continue to be in effect duri
this period, but would be repealed on the effective date of the
In addition, we often recommend that substantial n ew or increased impact fees be phased-in over 6-18
months. For example, the fees might go into effect initially at 50 percent, then go up to 75 percent
after six months and 100 percent or wha tever the ultimate level is after a year.
13276 research blvd , ste 208 austin tx 78750 phone 512 258 7347 fax 512 258 9994 email clancy@duncanplan.com
# # # #
Infrastructure and Public Facility Needs Assessment St udy – Ordinance Issues Memorandum, March 1, 2006, page 1
APPENDIX A: IMPACT FEE GLOSSARY
Assessment Districts refer to geographic areas subject to a uniform impact fee sched
Benefit Districts refer to geographic areas in which impact fees collected are earmarked to be spent.
Deficiencies, Existing refers to the cost to provide developm ent existing at the time of adoption of
an impact fee ordinance with the higher-than-existi ng level of service on which the impact fees are
based.
Development, Residential refers to subdivision of land for or construction of single-fam
or multi-family dwelling units.
Development, New refers to development that is not in existence at the time of a
fee ordinance.
Development, Nonresidential refers to subdivision of land for or construction of buildings
other than residential development.
Fair Share Assessments refers to the CountyÔs informal policy of requiring applicants for residential
and hotel rezoning to agree to pay f ees at time of platting, site plan or building permit to cover p
off-site infrastructure costs relating to roads, park s, fire, police and solid waste facilities. The amount
of the fees are based on a 1990 st udy, with annual inflation adjustments based on the Consumer Pri
Index.
Grace Period refers to a period of time following ordi nance adoption during which an owner of a lot
of record in existence at the date of ordinance adoption may apply fo r a building permit without being
required to pay a fee.
Impact Fees are one-time charges assessed on new development to cover prima
infrastructure costs as authorized by Chapter 46, Part VIII of HawaiÓi Revised Statutes.
Level of Service is a measure of the service pr ovided by a certain type of ca pital facility. In impact fee
analysis, level of service is typically expressed as a ratio of some characteristic of the facility type to the
amount of development being served. For exampl e, a common level of service measure for parks is
acres of parkland per 1,000 residents.
Level of Service, Existing refers to the actual level of servi ce provided by the County at the time of
adoption of an impact fee ordinance.
Level of Service, Higher-than-Existing refers to the calculation of impact fees based on the cost of
providing a better leve l of service than is being provided to existing development at t
adoption of an impact fee ordinance.
Lot of Record, Existing refers to a parcel of property in existence on the date of adoption of an
impact fee ordinance on which a building or structu re could legally be constructed without going
through the CountyÔs subdivision process.
13276 research blvd , ste 208 austin tx 78750 phone 512 258 7347 fax 512 258 9994 email clancy@duncanplan.com
# # # #
Infrastructure and Public Facility Needs Assessment St udy – Ordinance Issues Memorandum, March 1, 2006, page 2
Lots in Older Subdivisions refers to lots that were created in the early 1950s and 1960s a
conform to present-day subdivision co de requirements. Many of thes e lots were created without County
facilities and services: they have private roads, which are often unpaved, no County water system, no
parks, police or fire substations in the vicinity, an d are on cesspool. A large number of these lots are
in the Puna and KaÓ u Districts.
Phase-In Period refers to the time between the date of or dinance adoption and the date the impact fees
go into effect.
Rational Nexus refers to the doctrine articulated by the courts for constitutionally-valid impact fees,
based on a Ñrational nexusÒ that must exist between the regulatory fee or exaction and the activity that
is being regulated. The standards set by court ca ses generally require that an impact fee or other
developer exaction meet a two-part test: (1) the need for new fa
development; and (2) the expenditure of impact fee revenues must provide benefit to the fee-paying
development.
State Enabling Act refers to Chapter 46, § 141 to148 of HawaiÓi Revised Statutes, which was passed
by the Legislature in 1992 and authorizes counties to assess, impose, levy and collect impact fees upon
conducting a facility needs assessment study and the adoption of an impact fee ordinance.
13276 research blvd , ste 208 austin tx 78750 phone 512 258 7347 fax 512 258 9994 email clancy@duncanplan.com
# # # #