Balch Springs council creates CIP advisory committee, moves toward impact fees and Elam Road city center work

Balch Springs City Council voted July 14 to add a Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) advisory committee to the city code and directed staff to proceed with the engineering analyses that would support development of impact fees and city-center projects.

City staff described why the committee and impact fees are needed: to recover a portion of capital costs tied to new development, particularly water and wastewater system capacity, and to align with the city—s recently updated comprehensive plan. "Impact fees are one-time charges assessed to new development," staff said, adding they typically cover water, wastewater and street projects and are set using population projections, land-use assumptions and capital cost allocations.

The vote authorizes amending Chapter 2 (Administration), Article 5 (Boards and Commissions) to create a CIP advisory committee consistent with the requirements of the Texas Local Government Code, Chapter 395. Staff said the committee will include roughly seven members (an odd number), with two ex officio positions for senior business/capital staff and the city manager; the ordinance language will be refined by the city attorney before appointments are made. "We'll come back to you with the updated timeline that takes you through the steps for creation of the impact fees, once you guys appoint members to the CIP advisory committee," staff said.

During a presentation, staff also briefed council on the Elam Road Corridor City Center master plan adopted in April. The plan covers about 70 acres of the Elam Road corridor between I-635 and Pioneer Road and identifies mixed-use development, streetscape improvements and a proposed multipurpose municipal facility. Staff said the city has applied for and received grant funding to support design and feasibility work: a North Central Texas Council of Governments award of $1,600,000 for engineering design and feasibility for corridor redevelopment, which requires a $400,000 local match. Council previously set aside CO (certificate of obligation) financing that staff said will provide funds for land acquisition for a multipurpose civic facility, engineering and trail design and to match the COG grant.

Councilmembers framed the action as a necessary step to shift some infrastructure costs to new development. "These fees should help mitigate that and, or a step towards mitigating that," Councilmember Gabriel said. Councilmembers asked for clarity on committee membership and calculation methods; staff said the detailed fee calculation and public hearing steps will follow the committee formation and the water/wastewater master plan update. The ordinance motion passed unanimously.

Staff said next steps include finalizing ordinance language with the city attorney, council appointments to the CIP advisory committee, completion of the engineering analysis with consultants and scheduling a public hearing as part of the required impact-fee adoption process. The timeline staff described anticipates additional draft materials in August and a formal adoption process later in the fall.