Astoria council adopts final phase of system development charges to fund infrastructure

The Astoria City Council voted unanimously Feb. 2 to adopt the final phase of the city’s system development charges (SDCs), a set of one‑time fees charged to new development intended to pay the city’s share of capital infrastructure costs.

City staff and consultants told the council the SDC program has two components: a reimbursement fee for existing unused capacity and an improvement fee for future projects. “By law in the ORS, SDCs are available for water, wastewater, stormwater, transportation, and parks,” a consultant said during the presentation, noting the methodology and allowable uses are prescribed by state statute. Staff reported that roughly $685,000 has been collected through December 2025, with transportation charges representing the largest share to date.

Councilors pressed staff on impacts to small businesses and change-of-use projects, and staff described using the ITE trip-generation manual to assign transportation SDCs when uses change. Nathan Crater, the city engineer, said past collections were predominantly commercial: “about 95% of that total was being paid by commercial development, about 3% was paid by residential development,” he said.

Councilor Davis moved to adopt the resolution implementing the final SDC phase; Councilor Adams seconded, and the roll-call vote was unanimous. Councilors and staff agreed to continue exploring mitigation options — scaling, exemptions, deferrals and outreach — and to use the city’s pre-application process and business outreach during implementation to reduce surprises for applicants.

The council’s adoption completes the third step of a multi-year phasing plan; staff said full implementation is expected to be in place by mid‑2026, and the ordinance allows administrative indexing for inflation unless council chooses otherwise.