Astoria approves phase 2 system development charges, commits to housing assistance timeline

The Astoria City Council on April 21 adopted a resolution implementing phase 2 of the city’s system development charges for water, wastewater, storm drainage, transportation and parks, conducted the first reading of an updated SDC ordinance, and voted to pursue an SDC assistance program for housing with a target timeline of "by February" (year not specified).

City Manager Scott Spence told the council the charges are intended to ensure growth pays for impacts to existing utility systems: "system development charges are supposed to pay for the impacts to our current utility systems, which is typically related to growth." Spence said the ordinance also formalizes a 10-year credit for preexisting uses when a new tenant moves into an existing building.

Councilors debated the tradeoff between raising SDCs and the city’s stated goal of increasing affordable housing. "SDCs allow us to compensate for that by asking the people who are doing the new development to pay upfront for the cost of that expansion," Councilor Tyler Davis said, describing SDCs as an equity measure to make developers pay…