The Bella Vista City Council took a close look at a proposal to impose, calculate, collect and administer impact fees on new development during a special work session last Thursday, July 8.
The proposed fee schedule would include a $1,143 per unit fee on single-family residential development and a $619 per unit fee on multifamily residential development, while nonresidential commercial developments would see a $3,334 per 1,000 square feet fee, multifamily nonresidential would see a $692 per 1,000 square feet fee and office or institutional development would see a $1,354 per 1,000 square feet fee.
Fees are broken down among fire and EMS, police and library impacts.
Benjamin Griffin with TischlerBise, a consulting firm the city hired to help build this proposal, explained that these fees are collected on new development to help with costs caused by growth. The fees can add capacity, he said, but cannot be used to fix existing issues, like street maintenance -- a common request.
"Immediately you're saying 'hey, we're fixing something.' You can't use fees to fix a defeciency," he said.
New roads might be more defensible, he explained, but repaving existing roads is unlikely to be.
Funds also need to be spent within seven years or refunded, meaning the city's fees need to be based on projected growth, he said.
Mayor Peter Christie said that, while the city may not be able to use these funds for maintenance, they will offset other expenses and make these other expenses less strenuous on the city's coffers.
"We're using impact fees and not our capital reserves," he said.
Christie added that he expects city staff to be able to implement this by the 60-day deadline if it is approved at the July 26 regular meeting, where it will go to the third and final reading.
Staff attorney Jason Kelley said that, should the city ignore his firm's advice and collect impact fees for roads, a legal challenge is extremely likely and unlikely to go in the city's favor.
"The experts that we have gotten to do this are telling us we cannot," he said.