Council unanimously reauthorizes Habitat Conservation Plan impact fee to streamline development

Ivins City Council on June 19 adopted Ordinance 2025-12 to reauthorize an environmental mitigation impact fee that funds the Washington County Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP).

Staff attorney Brian (staff counsel; spoke to the ordinance) told the council the fee is charged on new development to fund the regional HCP and thereby allows developers in the city to proceed without separate endangered-species analyses for the desert tortoise; the fee is assessed as a percentage of new-construction value and is remitted to the county as part of the HCP funding mechanism. After the mayor opened a public hearing and no members of the public spoke, Councilmember (mover, SEG 843) moved to adopt the ordinance, the motion was seconded and a roll-call vote passed unanimously.

The measure preserves the regional conservation approach used by Washington County and federal partners, which staff said avoids duplicative project-level endangered-species reviews while directing mitigation funding to the HCP program. Council members framed the ordinance as the practical alternative to requiring each developer to perform its own conservation analysis.

The ordinance was adopted on a unanimous roll call; staff said the fee will remain in place under the terms described at the hearing and that the council would revisit the program if regional changes require it.

The city clerk will publish the ordinance as required and staff will work with the county to ensure fee collection and remittance procedures align with the HCP.