CC - Minutes - City Council - 2/18/2014

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Prescott City Council Special Meeting February 18, 2014 Page 2 Mr. Giardina noted that an impact fee is a tool a community uses to reflect a philosophy of having growth pay its way. He said communities have been driven toward impact fees due to the increasing unit cost of providing new capacity. Mayor Pro Tern Lamerson asked if they take into consideration constraints that face communities, like water and the limited amount of natural resources. Mr. Giardina answered, yes; the LUA do not project growth in the case of water beyond what they believe can be met. He noted that all projects are not growth related and funding sources needed to be identified for those projects. • Land Use Assumptions (LUA) and Infrastructure Improvements Plan (IIP) Summary Mr. Giardina noted that the LUA identify current and future service units and then project growth needing non -utility and utility services. He noted that fees were calculated from that information. He discussed population, housing and non-residential assumptions for the next decade. The increase of employees is used based on the land availability in Prescott to estimate the square footage of new development that will occu r. Craig McConnell, City Manager, noted that there is a parallel study going on that is looking at public safety. He said they are doing extensive analyses for calls for service. There has been a view expressed that, regarding setting impact fees for police or fire, the City should wait until they have more detailed information that can be presented to the Council. Mr. Giardina said that legislation requires municipalities to look at and define service areas. He said this was done with a careful process that defines service areas that reflects the facilities that are necessary to serve those areas. Councilman Lazzell asked why the state was legislating impact fees. Mr. Giardina said the legislation is driven by the development community and perceptions that there is no uniformity to how impact fees are calculated. With the legislation, the development community knows the fees they are paying are a proper reflection of the cost. • Preliminary Fees and Considerations Andrew Rheem, Senior Consultant, Raftelis Financial Consultants, Inc. addressed the Council. He explained the process for calculating fees and discussed fire and emergency medical service fees. The preliminary fee is just under $320.00 per housing unit and the range for a non-residential property of 1,000 square feet is $215.00 to $718.00. Mr. Rheem noted the City identified expansion at existing police headquarters. Overall the primary construction cost is 50/50 between existing and new development. The results of this in terms of future projects, ties into the existing facilities. Looking at the