CC - Minutes - City Council - 9/19/2006

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Prescott City Council Study Session—September 19,2006 Page 12 Councilman Lamerson commented the City didn't have a property tax,that was collected by Yavapai County and asked where the taxes went and Mr.Woodfill replied the City got a portion, but the county, school district, college and flood control district received a bigger share of the taxes collected. Councilman Lamerson said the impact fee was a one-time fee, but couldn't be used to upgrade existing infrastructure even though the new growth impacted and damaged the existing infrastructure, for instance impact fees could not be used to rebuild Iron Springs Road and asked if he was correct. Mr. Woodfill acknowledged that was correct but there could be some justification that new development required a widening of a roadway, such as Willow Creek Road that was increased from to four or five lanes and impact fees could be used in proportion to the costs of adding a lane or two. Mr. Lamerson said he could not support the increase in impact fees. Councilman Roecker asked Ms. Bristol what the reaction was when talking with commercial people when they were told there were no impact fees for commercial or businesses and Ms.Bristol responded they needed to know all the costs they were facing, such as buy-in fees, off-site improvement costs, building permits, etc. and impact fees was just one of the things they looked at when choosing a community and they asked what the other kir communities in the area charged as well. Mr. Woodfill noted for commercial property such as a shopping center, Chino Valley charged $1,180 per 1,000 square foot; Prescott was proposing $2,246 per 1,000 square feet; Peoria charged $15,767 per square foot. The last page of the January 2006 study was a comparison of other cities and the type of structure. Speakers: Howard Mechanic,309 Bloom Place,made the following points: • Need to cooperate with other cities,not compete. • Shouldn't give away tax revenues. • General Plan says growth will pay full cost of growth. If do less,not following General Plan. • Two alternatives,cut back on services or put it on sales tax. Fixed income residents would cover the cost of a fire station caused by new development. • A house in Prescott cost $200,000 five years ago and the impact fees were about 5%. Now the average house was $400,000 and the impact fees should be increased accordingly. • Some Councilmembers were supportive of raising impact fees; kire property and sales tax increases had been brought up in other