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Tucson council gets infrastructure‑plan update, approves schedule for impact‑fee review
Summary
City staff and consultant Tishla Buys presented a 10‑year Infrastructure Improvements Plan tied to updated land‑use assumptions and recommended a public outreach and adoption schedule; council concurred to proceed with hearings and a June fee adoption, with fees set to take effect in August 2025.
Tucson City Council on Dec. 10 received a staff presentation on the Infrastructure Improvements Plan (IIP) that underpins a proposed update to the city’s development impact‑fee program.
Business services staff and consultant Julie Herlands of Tishla Buys described 10‑year capacity projects and cost projections across parks, public safety and transportation. Herlands said parks needs include roughly 51 acres of new parkland (about $3 million) and an estimated $25 million for park amenities, while police needs include roughly 25,000 square feet of station space (about $7 million) and nearly $4 million for vehicles and equipment. Streets and multimodal improvements were the largest line item, with an estimated 52 lane miles and roughly $92 million in arterial‑improvement needs, plus separate signal and multimodal components.
Herlands told the council the growth and demand projections used for the IIP are calculated at the citywide level because Tucson’s impact fees are not set by subarea; staff said dollars collected in areas with higher growth would be eligible to fund capacity projects in those same service areas.
City staff reviewed the schedule required by Arizona law: the land‑use assumptions and IIP were posted Dec. 4; public hearings on the LUA and IIP are scheduled for Feb. 4, 2025; the council will consider adoption of LUAs/IIP on March 18; the draft fee schedule will be posted March 21; impact‑fee public hearings are scheduled April 22 with an adoption hearing set for June 3; fees are expected to take effect Aug. 18, 2025.
Council members asked whether the growth projections were broken down by ward; Herlands said the current analysis is citywide and that the fee methodology allocates proportionate shares by land‑use and service area rather than by ward.
After discussion, the council voted to concur with staff’s recommended process and timeline so staff can continue stakeholder outreach and bring the draft fee schedule back for the statutorily required public hearings.
