BRENHAM COUNCILMEMBERS, PUBLIC DEBATE ON IMPACT FEES
Opposing viewpoints were shared on the City of Brenham’s potential adoption of impact fees during a packed city council meeting today (Thursday).
chambers on Thursday for a public hearing on the
possible adoption of impact fees.
At a public hearing that lasted nearly an hour and a half and required extra chairs to be brought into the council chambers to seat an overflow crowd, several citizens expressed opposition to implementing the fees, saying they could drive growth out of Brenham and force developers to pass their higher costs onto new homeowners.
Meanwhile, councilmembers and city staff indicated the fees may be necessary in order to support needed improvements to the city’s water and wastewater infrastructure without substantially increasing utility rates for everyone.
The city forecasts a 10-year escalated cost of $45.1 million in order to tackle projects in its capital improvement plans for water facilities, along with a 10-year cost of $24.5 million for wastewater improvement projects. The impact fees would be assessed on all new developments within the city and its extraterritorial jurisdiction, and would be used to help fund a substantial portion of those infrastructure improvements. City of Brenham Development Services Director Stephanie Doland said cities do have the option to waive impact fees for school districts and low-income housing developments.
Based on the recommendation of the Capital Improvements Advisory Committee at their meeting on January 23rd, the city is looking at setting impact fees at 90 percent of the maximum assessable rate, wastewater at 20 percent of the maximum, and 0 percent for roadways; the recommended impact fee per service unit would be $4,794 for water, $620 for wastewater and $0 for roadways.
In practice, the developer of a single-family residence would pay $5,414 in total impact fees for that home, while the developer of a hypothetical 200-unit multi-family residential property with a 4-inch master water meter would pay $64,977 in impact fees.
One of the residents who spoke, Bill Rankin, read a letter on behalf of his daughter-in-law, Jamie Rankin, the president of the Washington County Chamber of Commerce. The letter requested that the council table action on adopting impact fees in order to allow for more time for consideration and dialogue. However, some members of the council stated they felt more than enough time has already been given for the public to learn about the matter, saying the process began in July 2023 and there have been several meetings and workshops since then.
Mayor Atwood Kenjura said the council is not taking this issue lightly. He said this is a matter of determining “who’s going to carry the burden”, noting that many Brenham residents are on fixed income and that, without impact fees, people who have been here their whole life could have to look elsewhere due to increased costs.
Today’s item was only for discussion, so no action was taken. The council will proceed with a vote on adopting the fees when it meets on February 15th.
Click here to read more about impact fees.
In other action, the council:
- Tabled a vote on changing the zoning for approximately 28.09 of 35.31 total acres of land at the northwest corner of West Jefferson Street and North Saeger Street to accommodate plans for the Wilkins Valley subdivision. The council opted to table in order to allow Grace Lutheran Church and the developer more time to communicate with the city, as several people came forward to present concerns about added traffic on Saeger Street.
- Approved the second reading of an ordinance granting a specific use permit to allow development of the Brookside Food Truck Park on 2.6 acres of land at the southeast corner of North Park Street and Brookside Drive.
- Approved an amendment to the city’s contract with the Texas General Land Office regarding the grant received for the Hogg Branch Creek flood and drainage improvement project. The city is choosing to not move forward with the project, with Public Works Director Dane Rau saying it has not been received well from the 42 property owners along the Hogg Branch channel and that project costs are higher now than when the city applied for and received the grant funding in 2020.
- Held executive session to consult with an attorney regarding Commonwealth Development, Inc. v. City of Brenham; Fair Housing Case No. 06-22-3294-8. The case involves the proposed tax-credit housing development on Pecan Street that was rejected by the city council in February 2021. In addition, the executive session included a review of applicants for the city manager position that is being vacated in March with Carolyn Miller’s planned retirement. No action was slated to be taken.
Click here to view the agenda packet for Thursday's meeting.
Congratulations John on your 20 years!
Is there anything that would prevent the city of Brenham from increasing the minimum lot size to one acre? That would certainly reduce the number of homes being built thereby reducing the impact on water and sewer infrastructure.
The city has mismanaged this issue for the past 15 years and now is between a rock and hard place. The state board responsible for this stuff; I believe the TCEQ has put them on notice and if action is not taken then a development moratorium could be put in place. The problem is that if these fees are too high then development will slow and then the city will be required to push the costs back onto all the original old account holders because the City MUST take action when the TCEQ gets involved. There are about 10K water accounts. The amount that would be pushed onto each current account if the impact fees were not passed would be somewhere like $25 per month.