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Bill would let planning boards assess impact fees for public works facilities
Summary
House Bill 168 would add "public works facilities" to the list of capital-purpose categories eligible for impact fees, allowing planning boards to charge new development for its share of public works facility costs, proponents said.
Representative Diane Power, prime sponsor of House Bill 168, told the committee the bill would add public works facilities to the existing list of capital facilities for which planning boards may assess impact fees on new development. "This is a very simple bill. It is three words. It adds public works facilities to the current list of eligible capital facilities," Power said, adding that at least six municipalities in the past five years have constructed or expanded public-works facilities and currently cannot collect impact fees for those facilities under current law.
Eric Power, a Brookline planning-board member who also testified, said Brookline built a new public works facility in 2022 and discovered the statute does not allow planning boards to collect impact fees for that purpose. "We're we have built a new public works facility back in 2020, '22, and we cannot collect impact fees," he said, asking the committee to approve the technical fix so planning boards can require growth to pay the proportional cost of new or expanded public-works facilities.
There was no substantive opposition on the record. The committee recommended the bill "ought to pass" and later voted to place it on the consent calendar before taking it out for further processing during executive session.
