Tucson was forced to stop collecting impact fees on Aug. 1st after failing to meet the deadline for adopting a state-mandated update on how it charges and spends the money.
The new proposed impact fees are now posted on the City of Tucson website. The former calculator based on square-feet for residential construction is gone and a map of Central, West, East, Southeast and Southlands in its place.
The city stands to lose about $3.2 million during the four month moratorium that it will take to get the new fees in place.
Homebuilder groups said the city's proposed changes need more work and are an excessive jump.
Higher fees of the proposed plan would boost fees from about $6,900 to $10,000 on an average 2,000-square-foot home. Fees would rise even more for apartment buildings and townhomes as well. Fees would decease for some nonresidential buildings and raise on others.
Just to get an idea of the effect to a large commercial project, we asked the City to quote impact fees on the ‘Norville-ville’ project downtown with its 831,000-square-feet gross mixture of retail, office, exhibition space, hotel and multifamily. With the former impact fees, the fees quoted would be approximately $3.1 million. After December 31st using the proposed impact fees, this amount would increase closer to $5.6 million.
Of course any and all permits pulled during the moratorium are free from fees. Tucson’s residential permits are up 22.5% year-over-year for July. The quickest way to slow that growth is with excessive fees.
The Mayor and Council of the City of Tucson will hold a public hearing on September 9, 2014, at or after 5:30 p.m. in the Mayor and Council Chambers of City Hall, 255 West Alameda, Tucson, Arizona, at which time and place all interested persons will have an opportunity to appear and be heard in relation to the following: Development (Impact) Fee Program Update.
To learn more go to: https://oip.tucsonaz.gov/integrated-planning/development-impact-fee-program-update