Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Municipal Finance topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Planning board discusses creating impact fees; asks staff and bookkeeper for follow‑up
Summary
Members discussed setting impact fees tied to specific infrastructure, possible residential exemptions (single‑family or workforce housing), and accounting requirements; staff were asked to review the statute referenced at the meeting and consult the town bookkeeper on implementation details.
The Town of Swansea Planning Board discussed whether to adopt impact fees during the March 27 meeting and asked staff to research statutory requirements and consult the town bookkeeper about administration and accounting.
Board members raised the need to tie any fee to demonstrable impacts on local infrastructure such as roads, water, sewer or schools. "It has to be tied to something that that project will impact in the town," a planning board member said, summarizing the board’s view. Members discussed excluding single‑family homes or providing waivers for low‑income builders; one planning board member said, "We do not put it on home bills ... If you think we could go away from residential, I would go away with workforce housing."
Staff and members noted impact fees require a fee schedule, accounting by fiscal year, and a clear nexus between the charge and the infrastructure expense. The board asked staff to review the statute referenced in the discussion (recorded in the meeting as "674:21" or similar) and to consult the bookkeeper on how to track fee collections and eligible expenditures. A board member recommended reading the statute text and preparing a financing chart and capital improvements plan (CIP) examples before advancing a formal proposal.
No formal vote was taken; the board agreed to pursue further study and to bring a draft fee schedule and implementation plan back to a future meeting.
