Monroe council reviews proposed transportation impact fee increase tied to updated comprehensive plan

City officials and outside consultants on March 11 outlined a proposed update to Monroe's transportation impact fees that would align the fee schedule with projects in the city's recently adopted comprehensive plan and could nearly double the per-unit fee for a typical single-family home.

The city's public works director, Jacob Roberts, introduced the topic and said the fee update is intended to match the new 20-year transportation project list in the comprehensive plan with a schedule that captures development's proportional share of project costs. "The transportation or traffic impact fees are fees that are collected from developers to help pay for transportation infrastructure improvements," said Transpar consultant Paul Sharman during the presentation.

The consultants told council staff identified 41 capital transportation projects in the transportation element, with a combined planning-level cost near $99 million over 20 years. After applying eligibility and growth-share calculations, they estimated about $47 million of that cost would be eligible for recovery through impact fees; the remaining $52 million would rely on grants or other city funds. Under the draft fee schedule presented, the typical impact fee for a single-family home would rise from about $4,200 (the current rate tied to the older plan) to approximately $7,400about a 76% increase.

Why this matters: transportation impact fees are meant to ensure growth pays a portion of the cost of new infrastructure. The consultants said the update also reflects changes in state law allowing impact fees to fund nonvehicle projects such as sidewalks, bicycle facilities and other active-transportation improvements.

Council members asked detailed questions about the methodology, the data vintage and policy choices behind the final numbers. Council Member Tammy Beaumont asked whether more recent traffic counts were considered; consultant Patrick Lynch replied that traffic data were collected in June 2022 and incorporated as the baseline for the comp-plan modeling, with growth factors applied to produce a 20-year forecast. "So you're comfortable with what we've got because we've built in some growth percentages into that work," Beaumont summarized after staff replied.

Several council members raised policy questions rather than technical objections. Council Member Kevin Walker and others noted the city has previously used relatively low fees to attract development and asked whether raising the rates might reduce Monroe's competitiveness with neighboring jurisdictions. "This fee is meant as a maximum," Patrick Lynch said. "The council can set it lower. The council could set it lower. I do not believe the council could set it higher without reworking project lists and costs."

Council Member Kurt Scarborough and others pressed on distributional effects and whether the city should reduce the project list to lower fees. Staff responded that removing projects would reduce total program cost but also shift funding burden to current residents, grant programs or future bonding. Scott Peterson, the deputy director and city engineer, emphasized the project list follows the land-use driven transportation needs identified in the comp plan.

Outcome and next steps: Council did not vote on the fee schedule at the meeting. Mayor-led discussion produced no formal objection to the draft and staff were directed to return with the ordinance for a first reading in the coming weeks. "Unless there's objection, it seems like the council is generally supportive of what you've seen here today and do not have any additional direction," the mayor said near the close of the discussion.

The council will consider the proposed ordinance and the fee schedule at a future meeting; if adopted, the fee changes would apply to development projects going forward and would be subject to the usual legal requirements for impact fees.