Sedona City Council members did a bit of state-mandated housekeeping — something they will need to do at least another two times.
During its Tuesday, March 26, meeting, council unanimously approved the Land Use Assumptions Document and the Infrastructure Improvement Plan as part of the overall updated Development Impact Fees, which should be approved later this year.
According to a city report, DIFs are one-time charges applied to new development in order that new growth pays its fair share of infrastructure improvements needed to provide municipal services and to ensure that existing residents are not unduly burdened to pay for improvements and services needed to accommodate new development.
The state requires that these fees be updated every five years.
State statute requires the city to follow a series of steps to develop and implement new DIFs. These steps include a minimum of 225 days as well as public hearings and public comment periods. This meeting was the second of four that will be scheduled with the fees becoming effective Monday, Sept. 9. Assistant City Manager Karen Osburn said the city has received no feedback since the matter was last heard by council on Feb. 12.
In her staff report, Osburn said the categories under consideration for assessment of these funds are streets, police and parks. While the current DIF schedule also assesses fees for drainage and general government, she said these categories are proposed to be removed in this update.
Although drainage is a permitted category, the city’s current drainage issues are existing and only an extremely small portion of the costs of improvements could reasonably be attributable to new growth. As a result, new development should not be required to contribute financially to solving the existing drainage issues.
The current fee structure charges a flat DIF for single-family homes as well as one for multi-family. Under the proposed updated plan it will be more of a sliding scale depending upon size of the home.
“The thought process behind this graduated scale of fees, based on unit size, was to help promote some of the unit types and sizes that we don’t have as many of in the community and would lend itself better to greater affordability and workforce housing,” Osburn said.
In a report by city consultant Tischler-Bise, it breaks down the projected needs and costs for streets, police and parks over the next decade to keep up with demand of a growing population in which the DIF could be used. These include:
- Parks and Recreation
Land: Four acres at a cost of $604,000
Improvements: $770,00
Facilities: 1,400 square feet of facilities for $174,000
- Police
Vehicles: Two for $110,000
Facilities: 1,000 square feet of facilities for $245,000
Communications equipment: $135,000
- Streets
Arterial street improvements: $2.3 million
Other street improvements: $150,000
“This is one mechanism that allows you to have development pay for itself,” Tischler-Bise’s Ben Griffin said in February in regard to the DIF. “You need infrastructure capacity to continue growing. This is one way to ensure that you have that capacity. By having these components in place, it allows you to say, ‘These are the components we think we need as a community to continue growing.’”
Ron Eland can be reached at 282-7795, ext. 122 or by email at reland@larsonnewspapers.com
