Our View: $18,741.36 for traffic impact fees for building a
science lab is absurd
Here’s a head scratcher: St. Mary Catholic School is being charged $18,741.36 by the City of Gilroy for traffic impact fees because the school is adding a 1,700-square-foot science building. There are no plans to increase the number of students going to the school. Perhaps this is a city experiment in bad science because that’s exactly what traffic impact fees are if a school that isn’t going to increase traffic is charged $18,741.36 for increasing traffic. If the city doesn’t reverse course and fix this “creative financing” scheme, no stretch of logic is going to change the perception that the city is a greedy, stubborn behemoth intent only on lapping up money from its residents.
Clearly, there’s a flaw in the way calculations are done. Whether it’s St. Mary School or John’s Accounting Service, if there isn’t an increase in traffic there should not be an associated traffic impact fee. We’re not sure who’s responsible for this sorry equation but it’s the Gilroy City Council’s responsibility to fix it.
Professors of Government Administration 101 may teach differently, but this is the type of stupidity that gives government a bad name and pits residents against City Hall.
Parents and students at St. Mary have spent years raising the funds for this wonderful addition to the school. To be hit with an illegitimate $18,741.36 bill when everyone is excited about starting a project opens a deep gash. Realizing that two years ago, when St. Mary started the permit process with the city, impact fees were 40 percent less is akin to pouring vinegar into that gash.
But we digress. St. Mary is petitioning the City Council for redress. It should be granted.
The project should be declared exempt from traffic impact fees. Moreover, the City Council should order a thorough inspection of the current fee structure. No such ridiculous situation should arise again.
Impact fees should be based on impact. Anything less is disingenuous on the city’s part and, if it’s allowed to stand, it erodes the trust that should exist between our local government and its people.
