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New Castle County finance committee hears impact-fee update; $1.24M collected, 47% earmarked for fire service
Summary
CFO Dave Delgrande reported that the county collected about $1,240,000 in impact fees from July 1 through Feb. 28 and will submit a Chapter 40 amendment in July to raise fee schedules 2.4% per CPI; council members pressed for additional metrics and raised concerns about the large share allocated to fire services.
Dave Delgrande, New Castle County’s chief financial officer, told the Finance Committee on June 23 that the county collected approximately $1,240,000 in impact fees between July 1 and Feb. 28 and will submit a Chapter 40 amendment in July to increase fee schedules by 2.4% under an ordinance linking fee updates to the consumer price index.
"Council passed ordinance 25-045 last year, linking fee updates to CPI and setting a five-year study cycle," Delgrande said. "Between July 1 and February 28, impact fees total approximately 1,240,000 were collected. Of this amount, 47 percent was allocated specifically to the fire service... The full impact study starts in January '27. We will then continue with annual CPI updates starting in February of next year."
The update drew questions from several council members about how the CPI change was calculated, what period the percent change covered and how much of new development costs are actually covered by impact fees. Councilwoman Durham pressed staff on the CPI calculation, asking whether the 2.4% change represented a one-year differential; Delgrande said the figure reflected the February-to-February change chosen for the ordinance's annual update.
Councilman Carter asked staff to provide a year-over-year comparison and to estimate the share of capital costs that impact fees cover, saying he wanted a metric to judge whether the county’s fee levels are in line with peer jurisdictions. "It would be helpful to just really have some good metrics… to figure out what's reasonable, what's fair," Carter said.
Several members expressed concern about the concentration of fee revenue directed to fire services. Delgrande said the distribution is consistent with the ordinance and past requests from fire companies; he and members discussed coordinating with state partners on longer-term funding strategies for emergency services.
Delgrande reiterated the schedule: a Chapter 40 amendment to raise fee schedules by the CPI-change percentage will be submitted in July, a full five-year study will begin in January 2027, and annual CPI-based updates will continue thereafter. Committee members asked staff to return with additional data, including year-over-year collections and an estimate of what percentage of capital cost is met by current impact-fee receipts, and to compare New Castle County’s approach with other jurisdictions.
