Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Impact Fees topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Herriman speakers explain impact fees; city says it will update fee studies
Summary
Speakers described transportation impact fees as charges meant to cover road improvements from new development, said state rules require formal studies and restrict spending, and stated the city is updating its studies to better align charges with actual costs.
Speaker 2, an unidentified speaker in the meeting, described impact fees as a tool to fund infrastructure tied to new development and singled out the transportation impact fee as the primary example under discussion.
“If you bring that house or you bring that development in here, how will that impact the roads that are here? What do we have to do to improve the roads to absorb the impact that you're going to create so that new growth is helping to pay for the impact that it has on your city?” Speaker 2 said, explaining the basic purpose of an impact fee.
Speaker 2 added that impact fees commonly fall short of fully covering infrastructure costs and are tightly governed by state rules. “They’re very restricted at the state… So you have to have a study that goes along with your impact fee. You can’t just randomly decide we want to charge this amount,” Speaker 2 said, describing the legal and procedural constraint that requires cities to base fees on a formal study. The speaker also noted that fees are collected into funds that generally may be spent only on the uses defined by the study.
To keep fees aligned with actual costs and with city growth patterns, Speaker 2 said the city is updating its impact-fee studies. “We are in the process of going back and updating our studies so that we can make sure our impact fees stay in line with where they should be so that we’re not overcharging for people that want to come into our city but we’re not undercharging and making the liability lay on the current taxpayer,” the speaker said.
The discussion clarified three practical points: impact fees are intended to allocate some infrastructure costs to new development rather than current taxpayers; state rules require a supporting study and limit how fees may be set and spent; and the city plans to update its studies to recalibrate fees. The meeting record did not include any formal motion, vote, ordinance number, dollar amounts, or a stated timeline beyond the general statement that studies are being updated.
