FAYETTEVILLE CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATES : Aspirants debate options for impact fees
Posted on Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Impact fees were the new topic tackled by Ward 2 and Ward 4 City Council hopefuls at a Monday afternoon debate sponsored by the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce.
The city's Water and Sewer Committee is set to recommend a $ 700 increase in impact fees for construction of a single-family home, said Ward 4 Alderman Lioneld Jordan. The city already has a little more than $ 1, 100 in impact fees. The $ 700 hike would be the first increase of a possible $ 5, 400 increase in the next three years to pay for improvements to pipes and lift stations due to increased capacity demands by the new wastewater treatment plant. Jordan said the committee would review the fees each year for the next three years to decide if another phase of increases would be needed.
"It may not happen every year," Jordan said.
At the debate candidates discussed their view on the fees.
Ward 2 candidate Matthew Petty said the impact fees for water and sewer are unfortunate but," You got to do what you got to do," Petty said. He added that he'd form a more detailed opinion on the issue when he had a chance to study and analyze all the numbers.
Petty's opposition, Mark Kinion, stated that he's unhappy with the lack of communication to the public about the possible fee raise.
"Surprises suck," Kinion said.
He added that he'd like to see impact fees that did not affect the housing costs of low to moderate income housing.
Ward 4 candidate Sarah Lewis said she does not want to give an opinion on whether she's for or against the fees until she's had a chance to crunch the numbers and research what other communities are doing. She did say she'd like to challenge developers to create buildings that reduce impact on city infrastructure.
"I think there needs to be an incentive program instead of a punishment program (for developers )," Lewis said.
Bernard Sulliban, another Ward 4 candidate, said he wanted to "use impact fees as a carrot instead of a stick. "He said the city needs to encourage developers to build closer to the middle of the city by offering lower impact fees in those areas.
The other Ward 4 candidate, Craig Honchell, thinks the city should identify core density zones in its boundaries and graduate fees away from those zones to discourage urban sprawl. He said he would also like to see a growth-based impact fee explored.
"Identify your growth rate and base (impact ) fees off of that," Honchell said. "It will entice people to come develop in Fayetteville when growth is down, because fees will be down."
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