Consultant says Pflugerville's legal cap for parkland dedication calculates to about $9,163 per home; commission to review

At a Planning and Zoning Commission meeting in Pflugerville, Dr. John Crompton, a professor at Texas A&M University, told commissioners that applying constitutional proportionality standards to the city's data yields a modeled maximum parkland-dedication fee of about $9,163 per dwelling unit. The presentation, conducted during the Unified Development Code (UDC) amendment discussion, was described by Crompton as a legal cap rather than a policy recommendation.

Why it matters: Parkland-dedication requirements determine whether new developments must give land or pay fees for parks; those revenues affect whether cities can maintain service levels without raising taxes. Crompton framed the rule as one of three ways to pay for growth and said failing to capture those costs at the front end often forces cities to make up the difference through bonds and higher taxes later.

Crompton walked commissioners through his method and the legal constraints that shape it. He reviewed key case-law principles—referring to the Nolan nexus requirement and the Dolan rough-proportionality standard—and said Texas precedent (he cited College Station v. Turtle Rock) and state statute require individualized findings tying…