IMPACT FEES DISCUSSED DURING BRENHAM CITY COUNCIL, PLANNING & ZONING WORKSHOP

Josh Blaschke August 31, 2022

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Brenham City Councilmembers and Planning and Zoning Commissioners met Tuesday evening for a workshop to discuss impact fees for capital improvements, infrastructure and facilities.

Kelly Hajek of Strand Associates discusses the steps involved in implementing impact fees during a workshop Tuesday with Brenham City Councilmembers and Planning and Zoning Commissioners at the Nancy Carol Roberts Memorial Library.

Ryan Tinsley and Kelly Hajek of Strand Associates gave a presentation on how impact fees imposed on developers can be used to recoup capital improvement costs and walked through the process of adopting an impact fee ordinance.

A variety of Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) projects are eligible for impact fees, including facilities for water supply, treatment and distribution; wastewater collection and treatment; stormwater, drainage and flood control; and roadways.

Tinsley said for many years, impact fees were viewed as deterrents to new development, but that is no longer the case.

When asked what the average impact fee would look like for a town Brenham’s size, Hajek said a standard residential water connection could range anywhere from $1,500 to $8,000. She said the cost ultimately depends on what is in place in the city’s CIP, which identifies projects and project costs necessary to handle a community’s projected level of growth over the next 10 years.

Ryan Tinsley of Strand Associates meets with the Brenham City Council and Planning and Zoning Commission on Tuesday at the Nancy Carol Roberts Memorial Library to go over how impact fees can be assessed to cover capital improvement costs.

If the city decides to pursue implementing impact fees, the first step is to form a Capital Improvement Advisory Committee. The committee would be tasked with recommending land use assumptions to the city council, reviewing and monitoring a CIP, and filing semi-annual CIP progress reports. The committee must have at least five members, and no fewer than two must be representatives from real estate, development or building industries and cannot be city employees or officials.

Next, the city would prepare a draft Land Use Assumptions (LUA) map and population projections, incorporating comments from the committee into them. A CIP would then be drafted and presented to the committee before preparing impact fees. After that, the committee would make a formal recommendation to the city council to approve the LUA map, population projections, CIP and maximum assessable impact fees. Following a public hearing, the council could then adopt either the maximum assessable impact fee or a lower impact fee.

Depending on how the city wants to approach the process, it could take between four months and around a year to complete.

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