Council adopts updated traffic impact fee schedule; staff cites rising construction costs and minor CIP edits

Consultant Mark Heisinger of Kittleson Associates briefed council on a 2025 minor update to Middleton—s traffic impact fee (TIF) program and associated capital improvement plan (CIP).

Heisinger said the 2021 methodology was retained but that recent local bid results and rising construction costs required updates to unit and project costs. "We saw our base unit cost increase from anywhere between 20–70%," Heisinger said, and added that roadway-widening items showed the largest increases.

The update proposed limited changes to the project list: adding three roundabouts (including the Purple Stadium/Cemetery Road roundabout) and removing several collector-road projects that consultants and staff now expect developers to construct as part of private development. Heisinger said that projects already completed were frozen in the CIP and that overall the proposed fees generally increase in the high teens for typical land uses, but with larger changes for uses whose trip-generation rates were updated in the ITE manual.

Heisinger recommended that the minor update go to Planning and Zoning in October and return to council for final adoption in November. Council moved to read Ordinance 713 by title and to adopt; the ordinance amends Title 1 Chapter 20 to update the impact-fee schedule.

"Traffic impact fees can only be spent on projects within a capital improvement plan and need to be calculated based on cost of projects in the capital improvement plan," Heisinger said, explaining why the CIP and the fee schedule are presented together.

Council adopted the ordinance as presented (roll call recorded in the minutes). Staff said agencies that share the TIF service area (Canyon County, Highway District 4 and City of Star) may adopt the same updated fees on their own schedules; fees collected by each agency can only be spent on projects in that agency—s jurisdiction.