Commissioner reports Wasatch County collected minimal impact fees tied to Walsburg; recommends review of county project list

Walsburg planning staff told the Planning Commission on May 20 that Wasatch County's impact-fee records show only a small amount potentially attributable to Walsburg development and advised the commission to review the county's impact-fee project lists before pursuing local impact fees.

The presenter said he spoke with Wasatch County planning staff and the county director and obtained the county's impact-fee analyses. "The most that they probably would have ever collected in the past 5 years is about $22,000," he said. He reported the county's impact fees are organized into facility categories such as transportation, roads, parks and police and that the county indicated it had not been collecting significant fees tied to projects located inside Walsburg except for a minimal public-safety fee.

Commissioners were advised that if a county impact-fee project is explicitly planned to occur in Walsburg, the town should be consulted and would be entitled to a portion of fees collected for projects serving the town. The presenter also noted that jurisdictions that implement impact fees must place projects on an impact-fee facilities list and use collected fees toward those projects within six years; otherwise funds must be repaid to developers with interest.

The presenter offered to share copies of the county's impact-fee studies, the impact-fee facilities plan and the county's impact-fee status report with town staff; commissioners asked staff to circulate the documents and review whether any listed projects are physically in Walsburg. Commissioners discussed the town's limited annual development volume and questioned whether establishing a local impact-fee program would be cost-effective given the six-year spending window and the administrative burden.

The commission agreed to review the materials the presenter will send and to discuss impact-fee options at a future meeting.