Proposal would nix sewer fees within RDA area and citywide
traffic fees
By Marilyn Dubil Staff Writer
Morgan Hill – City council members voted 4-0 Wednesday night to continue exploring the idea of lowering developer impact fees and pay for some infrastructure improvements with Redevelopment Agency funds. Councilmember Marby Lee was not present.
Impact fees are paid by developers to pay for facilities and services such as schools, parks and roads.
“These are the kinds of things that city governments do best,” Councilmember Larry Carr said. “I’m eager to get this going.”
According to Garrett Toy, business assistance and housing services director, the proposal eliminates the sewer impact fees for development within the RDA project area and decreases the traffic impact fees citywide by about 56 percent.
Currently, developers must pay about $30 per gallon per day in sewer impact fees and about $3,100 for traffic impact, though commercial and residential developments are figured differently.
Toy told council members that the proposed reductions could pull about $37 million from the RDA funds for traffic improvements and about $20 million for sewer improvements.
Morgan Hill Planning Commission member Ralph Lyle said he didn’t want to say whether or not the proposal has his support until he has more information.
“It’s too early to make a judgment at this point,” he said. “I agree with the concept, but I’d like to understand it a little better.”
His main concern, Lyle said, is that “the piece on the traffic impact fees is based on old data, and I don’t think they’ll have a lot of new data in January.”
The city’s general plan includes projects that would impact the city’s infrastructure – traffic and sewers – so the city needed to address a way to pay for the necessary improvements.
“The irony is that the fee system established to pay for those plans is acting as a disincentive and actually slowing down our ability to complete those plans,” Tewes said Thursday.
Carr emphasized other benefits of the proposal in addition to development.
“This is a real positive thing for a lot of reasons, one is that it would improve the infrastructure in our community for those of us who live here today,” he said. “It would be a huge benefit for those who live here today, not just for future development.”
