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Rockwall council adopts updated water, wastewater and roadway impact fees
Summary
After a staff and consultant presentation, the Rockwall City Council unanimously adopted updated impact-fee ordinances on Oct. 7 that increase collections to reflect projected growth and higher construction costs; consultants said the update recovers an estimated $60 million of growth-attributable roadway costs over a 10-year horizon.
The Rockwall City Council on Oct. 7 unanimously adopted an ordinance updating impact fees for water, wastewater and roadway facilities, following a public hearing and a multi-month review by the Planning & Zoning Commission and the city's Capital Improvement Advisory Committee.
City planning staff and consultants said the update uses a 10-year land-use forecast and a 3% compound annual growth assumption to calculate needed capital improvements and the maximum fees allowed by state law. Eddie Haas of Friese & Nichols told the council the roadway program now includes 71 projects with an estimated construction cost of about $361 million and, after required credits, a ceiling of roughly $180 million; consultants estimated roughly $60 million of that cost would be attributable to growth over the 10‑year window and recoverable through impact fees.
Derek Cheney, the water and wastewater consultant, summarized the utilities analysis and said the calculated maximum impact fee for a typical residential meter (after the statutory 50% split) would be roughly $19.80 for water and about $3,002.49 for wastewater in the technical maximum; the CIAC recommended collecting portions of those maxima and proposed collection rates that vary by land‑use type.
Council members and staff said the update aims to shift more of infrastructure cost burden onto new development rather than existing taxpayers and to keep Rockwall’s fees competitive with nearby cities. Miller, city planning director, said staff will return with revised ordinance language for one impact-fee section that is still being finalized.
There were no public speakers on the item during the hearing. Council moved to approve the ordinance amending the municipal code to implement the updated land‑use assumptions, capital improvement plan and fee schedules; the motion passed unanimously.
The ordinance is effective as provided in its language; staff said schedule and implementation details will be published as part of the final ordinance package and brought back to council for ministerial updates.
