City holds public hearing on proposed Chapter 41 impact‑fee amendments; supporters urge maintaining or raising fees

The council opened a public hearing on proposed amendments to Chapter 41 of the Lubbock Code of Ordinances (impact fees) and received staff presentations and public comment. No council action was taken; the hearing was for comment only.

Staff summarized prior steps: a previous public hearing covered land‑use assumptions and capital improvement plans; the current hearing considered the draft impact‑fee ordinance and rates based on the Civic Infrastructure Advisory Committee (CIAC) recommendation and related studies. Staff presented a 10‑year history of building permits, noting peak single‑family permit years in 2021 and 2022 and lower permitting activity in the most recent years; commercial valuation figures included large permit outliers (the expo center and other projects) that affect year‑to‑year totals. City Engineer John Turpin explained the transportation demand (trip‑generation) factor used in the fee calculations, noting the Institute of Transportation Engineers’ Trip Generation Manual as the source for trip rates and describing differences between the 2020 and 2025 studies.

Members of the public who addressed the council urged the city to retain impact fees at recommended levels or raise them toward the statutory 50% maximum. Resident Stephanie Smith urged raising impact‑fee collection toward the maximum and argued for compact, walkable development patterns to reduce heat, water and traffic impacts. Joshua Shankles, managing director of Lubbock Compact, spoke at length in favor of impact fees as a tool to share growth costs and to discourage unchecked sprawl; he summarized the policy rationale that impact fees make development pay a portion of the cost to extend infrastructure rather than shifting the full cost to current taxpayers. Adam Hernandez, communications chair for Lubbock Compact, also urged council to keep impact fees in place and suggested a 50/50 split is fair between current taxpayers and new development, while calling the CIAC recommendation a reasonable floor if a higher split is not possible.

Tom Laney of Lubbock Moonlight Musicals and other speakers supported maintaining impact fees and asked council to consider long‑term effects on roads, services and neighborhoods. A limited number of speakers asked about unrelated items during the hearing; the mayor cautioned that public‑hearing comments must be on the impact‑fee topic.

Staff did not present a council motion during the hearing; the council will have further opportunities to act after consideration of the public record and the ordinance drafting process.