The City Council held a work session on impact fees charged for new development in Fort Collins. The methodology for calculating these fees is complicated because the State requires a “nexus” between the cause and effect of the fee. The discussion was made more complicated by the fact that the City has many different fees not all of which are ready for Council’s consideration: Capital Improvement Expansion, Transportation Capital Expansion (Street Oversizing), Electric Capacity, Raw Water Requirement/Cash-in-lieu of Water, parks, general government, police, fire, etc.
However, to the staff’s credit, an inventory of all the fees was launched last year to better understand the total impact of all the fees. Although public outreach to business groups such as FCBR, the homebuilders and the Fort Collins Chamber of Commerce led to a common concern that the proposed fee increases would impact the cost of new homes in the City, apparently, the Council didn’t agree. Mayor Wade Troxell, usually an ally of the business community, called the fees “reasonable for Fort Collins.” If the fees are ultimately approved by Council after a public hearing process which has not yet been scheduled, the cost to build a median priced ($437,000 home) would increase from $31,000 to $38,000. The fees to build a small home (up to 1,700 square feet) would increase from $14,163 to $22,016.
IRES MLS: Come Home to Colorado 