El Mirage council reviews draft development-impact fees, asks staff to model a second fire station and community center

Carson Vice, a consultant with Tishler Bice, told the El Mirage Common Council on June 19 that the firm’s draft development-impact fee study is preliminary and subject to change after further vetting and council feedback.

"The numbers you see are preliminary," Vice said, warning the council that staff had only seen the draft in early May and that the final package will include three required work products: land-use assumptions, an infrastructure improvement plan and the formal Development Fee Report.

The study presented draft fee amounts and the methodologies used to calculate them — including buy‑in, consumption and plan‑based approaches — and applied those methods to projected growth over a 10‑year horizon. Vice said the team used a growth projection of roughly 900 new residents, about 5,500 net new jobs and about 5.3 million square feet of new nonresidential development for the study’s baseline calculations.

Why it matters

Development impact fees are one‑time charges intended to recover the growth‑related portion of the cost of infrastructure. Under Arizona law and the consultant’s interpretation, the fees may be used only for capital capacity tied to new development — not routine operations or existing service shortfalls — and must meet legal tests of need, benefit and proportionality.

Details and draft totals

Vice laid out draft, category‑by‑category calculations and multiple examples the council could expect in the written report. Using the draft assumptions presented at the work session, the consultant estimated the following draft fees (all described by Vice to the council as preliminary and subject to credits, methodological adjustments and further council direction):

- Parks: Approximately $2,149 per single‑family dwelling unit and about $19.29 per multifamily unit; nonresidential rates ranged from roughly $22 to $211 per 1,000 square feet depending on land use. - Police: Draft residential fees of roughly $1,518 per single‑family unit and $1,363 per multifamily unit; nonresidential fees were higher for retail and lower for industrial or office uses (examples shown by draft: $2,469 per 1,000 sq. ft. for some commercial types). - Fire: Draft residential fees of about $1,246…