Developers press for transparency as cities defend impact fees to pay for growth

City officials, developers and advocacy groups debated municipal recurring fees and one‑time impact fees. David Morgan, Georgetown city manager, described large near‑term capital programs to serve rapid growth and said the city uses impact fees to ensure new development pays a share of expansion costs. ‘‘We estimate over the next 5 years we will spend $1.7 billion on infrastructure,’’ Morgan said, and impact fees offset a portion of that.

Builders and development attorneys recounted cases where they said fees were opaque, disproportionate, or lacked clear cost bases; one developer said a road‑closure ‘‘inconvenience fee’’ was negotiated down from roughly $1 million, which the witness said lacked a clear cost justification. Associations argued the state should preserve impact‑fee authority but require audits, public notice and limits on repeated or unexplained fee increases.

Environmental groups urged preservation of drainage and stormwater fee authority and recommended expanding county tools for drainage in rural or sensitive watersheds. Committee members asked for a list of common local development fees and for examples of jurisdictions where systems were transparent and tied to specific projects. Staff follow‑up was requested.