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Council reauthorizes environmental mitigation fee to fund Washington County Habitat Conservation Plan
Summary
Ivins City Council unanimously approved an ordinance reauthorizing the impact fee developers pay to fund the Washington County Habitat Conservation Plan, enabling development to proceed without individual endangered‑species analysis for the desert tortoise.
The Ivins City Council unanimously approved ordinance No. 2025‑12 on June 19 to reauthorize the environmental mitigation impact fee that funds Washington County’s Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP).
Staff explained the fee — set as 0.2% of the value of new construction and collected at permitting — supports a county‑level conservation program that allows development to proceed without site‑by‑site endangered‑species analyses for the desert tortoise. Brian (city staff) described the HCP as “the mechanism by which development is allowed to continue to occur in Washington County.”
There was no public testimony during the hearing. After brief council discussion, Councilmember Barton moved to adopt the ordinance; the motion was seconded and passed on a roll call vote of Aye from Councilmembers Anderson, Gillespie, Barton, Smith and Scott.
City staff noted the alternative — removing the county HCP — would require each developer to prepare individual conservation plans, a change staff said would be materially more burdensome.
