Letters regarding position of impact fee - VII-A - 3-21-95

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i M If S tl What's The Impact sic l9�l .i 0 In a search for new sources of revenue, one Utah school i district turned to impact fees for school construction BY DONALD J.FIELDER portionate share of the facilities that are built to serve them. The impact fees shift a portion of the cost of providing these new capital facilities from the general tax base to the new f your school system is a high-growth district like development. In many states, impact fees are now widely mine, you must be keenly aware of the impact of used to pay for roads, parks, libraries, sewers, and other new development in your district. Quite simply, necessary public services (see "Breaking new ground," on i new development means more people, and more page 33). people mean that more school buildings, roads, School facility impact fees are charges levied against new parks, libraries, and other public services will be residential units and are designed to offset the additional needed.The question is:Who will pay for them? costs new residential development brings to a school dis- We faced this issue in Park City, Utah, a 3,000-student trict. Impact fees are a one-time assessment; they are not a school district located in a ski resort area 30 miles east of tax, and they are not based on the assessed valuations of Salt Lake City. Our district had experienced double-digit property. In fact, the fees help to stabilize property taxes, percentage growth over each of the last seven years as because the cost of the new facilities is transferred from the thousands of people flocked here, attempting to flee cities general property tax base to the impact fees. beset with crime,pollution,and other urban problems. To assess impact fees on all new residentitt?gr.•owth, our To accommodate our rapidly growing student population, district needed the help of the city and county governments we determined that we needed $110 million in new con- that encompass the district and which,under Utah law,have struction over 20 years, starting with a $32 million school the authority to issue impact fees for infrastructure and pub- bond issue. We also recognized, though, that in this age of lic facilities. Thus, the school district needed—and're- disenchantment with government in general and with pub- ceived--the support of both the city and county ei:ected offi- lic schools in particular, voters often express their frustra- cials who could authorize school facility impact fees on tion by voting down school bond issues. In fact, our resi- behalf of the district. The three government agencies met dents told us as much:They said they would not support the and decided to work collaboratively to assess such fees— bond issue—scheduled to go to a vote this winter—unless the first use of such fees in Utah and in much of the West. new residents shared a greater percentage of the burden. Our first step was to develop a long-range capital-facilities We needed to identify a new source of revenue to help plan that outlined our anticipated building needs for the pay for the classrooms necessary to serve our growing stu- next 20 years. Then we engaged a law firm specializing in dent population. And so we turned to a bold new idea: the land-use planning and impact fees to help design and de- use of school facility impact fees. You might want to con- velop a comprehensive plan.That plan has three major com- sider this idea for your district as a way to alleviate the portents: an inventory of what buildings we had and what tremendous building costs associated with residential our tinat►cing capabilities were like;a projection of the build- growth. int;� that will be required; and a description of school im- Park City's experience pact it-4•�.including the formula we used to calculate the im- pact t4•c• What, exactly, are school facility impact fees?They are a Om tirm step was to develop cooperative agreements form of general impact fees—levies that local governments atntntt; the city, county, and school district. This process tnay impose so that new residential developments pay a pro- w aN a dimcult. time-consuming, and sometimes frustrating cMr that iook months to complete and involved attorneys Donald J. Fielder is superintendent of the Park City, Utah, in-m all thc• governmental entities. Despite some differ- School District. e•nct- (n opinion, though, we were able to develop working 32 MARCH 1995 THE AMERICAN SCHOOL BOARD JOURNAL