CC - Agendas - City Council - WORKSHOP - 10/28/2008

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Prescott City Council Joint Special Meeting/ Study Session — October 21, 2008 Page 21 regarding impact fees and they all worked hard and came up with some good things. Things have changed. The Council .cannot expect the revenue stated to be accurate in this time, with only 100 building starts this year. He said that everyone he has talked with has nothing on the table. They are not going to raise the kind of money they need and they need to look at some reasonable impact fees and different methods of funding the infrastructure needs of the City. They need to get outside their box and look at a comprehensive funding approach. He said that they have been focused on impact fees and rate changes, when they need to be focused on how they will develop the old town and maintain the economic health of it. He said that in a competitive nature, they need to look at the startling increases in commercial impact fees. Those are well over 100% and more. There are thousands of dollars in commercial impact fee increases, while Prescott Valley has suspended theirs. They need to look at an economic stimulus package for Prescott to encourage reasonable and sustainable growth, which is not occurring. Howard Mechanic, 309 Bloom Place, said that he participated in some of the meetings held over the past 45 days, and he wanted to thank staff and the consultants. Many times the questions were given numerous time. He said that he appreciated Ms. Griffis saying that growth should pay for growth, but then Mr. Matthews stood up and suggested subsidizing commercial growth. He asked who is to subsidize it; it is a matter of fairness. He said that Mr. Matthews has brought up the issue of slower growth and money not coming in. That is true when they have slower growth, but when they put in a new pipeline that has 500 lots, they will be paying for it over a longer period of time. He said that if they lower the impact fee, that will lower their income. f it is going to go slower they are going to have more interest, and if it takes longer, there will be more carrying costs, which means the impact fees should be higher per unit. The per unit cost will tend to go up when growth is lower. He said that the agreement was to meet in October; in one year they will start it over again. If people have suggestions, that is the time to do it. The only thing he heard today is a construction tax and he does not understand the difference. He said that the contractors do not go to the utility companies and ask them to subsidize their costs. He said that they cannot solve the financial problems around the country. He said that the impact fees are about 5% of their fees; if they cut them out completely, it will not make that much difference.