By Richard Dyer
Twitter: @RHDyer

Updating impact fees will be considered at the Nov. 20 meeting of the Queen Creek Town Council.

If an impact-fee ordinance is approved at the meeting, changes will be effective Feb. 3, 2020, Finance Director Scott McCarty said at a recent Town Council meeting.

Residential and non-residential impact fees are one-time fees assessed to new development to pay for the new growth’s proportionate share of necessary infrastructure. The town assesses eight impact and capacity fees --- transportation, parks and recreation, library, town facilities, wastewater, water, public safety, and fire --- according to queencreek.org.

A public hearing held Sept. 4 on proposed changes to the impact fees was continued to Oct. 16 because of a miscalculation on three of the amounts.

“The error, unfortunately, affected all five types of land-use categories --- single-family, multi-family, retail, office and warehouse,” Mr. McCarty said to the council Oct. 16.

“We found an error with the consultant’s report that affected the fee that was in the reports that were published as part of the public hearing,” he said.

The Sept. 4 public hearing was continued to the Oct. 16 meeting to allow a 30-day period for the report with the corrected fees to be posted. The changes were also explained to stakeholders, he said.

In a graphic Mr. McCarty showed to the council, examples of the changes in the five land-use categories were:

• Single-family home draft fee: $12,249; corrected fee: $12,648 --- an increase of $399.
• Multi-family home draft fee: $4,966; corrected fee: $5,251 --- an increase of $285.
• 20,000-squae-foot retail draft fee: $106,683; corrected fee: $111,863 --- an increase of $5,180.
• 50,000-square-foor office draft fee: $179,609; corrected fee: $188,159 --- an increase of $8,550.
• 75,000-square-foot warehouse draft fee: $213,184; corrected fee: $224,209 --- an increase of $11,025.

“Impact and capacity fees are calculated to cover the growth share of development,” Mr. McCarty said in a memo to the council.

“Over the next 10 years, the capital improvements in these areas are forecasted to be $442.9 million. Of this amount, $233.0 million (53%) relates to growth and will come from impact and capacity fees while $209.9 million (47%) is non-growth,” he said.

The council meets at 5:30 p.m. the first and third Wednesday of the month at the Queen Creek Community Chambers, 20727 E. Civic Parkway, for ceremonial matters, committee reports and public comment before adjourning to a closed-door executive session in the Ironwood Conference Room. Public hearings are held after 7 p.m.