College Station City Council rejects bid to lower roadway impact fee collection rate

3,760 Views | 22 Replies | Last: 6 yr ago by PS3D
duffelpud
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AG
Starting Dec. 1 homebuilders (aka 'home buyers') will pay $750 at the time permits are pulled for new home construction and rolled into the price of new homes. The full $1,500 fee (aka 'tax') will be charged beginning next year.

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SARATOGA
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NICE.

Can we make it $10,000 ?


That will shut down growth nicely !


This post was brought to you by Tom's BBQ and going 70mph on Hwy 6 at 5pm.
runawaytrain
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Sweet. You mean now residents won't have to bear the burden to build the builder's infrastructure? I feel so bad for the builders. Breaks my heart.
nought
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AG
runawaytrain said:

Sweet. You mean now residents won't have to bear the burden to build the builder's infrastructure? I feel so bad for the builders. Breaks my heart.
You realize this will just be passed along to home buyers, right? And, you realize how much tax revenue every new home brings in over time, right? Additional taxation is not a good thing.
dallasiteinsa02
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runawaytrain said:

Sweet. You mean now residents won't have to bear the burden to build the builder's infrastructure? I feel so bad for the builders. Breaks my heart.
Developers pay for all of their internal infrastructure and in most cases the cost to connect to existing infrastructure or the impact on that infrastructure. Now if you are asking for them to pay for their entire impact that is unfair. Should the Indian Lakes developer have to pay for the expansion of Arrington Road to four lanes and then Fitch to six lanes because of their subdivision. If that is what you are looking for, development would be completely dead in BCS.
duffelpud
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Quote:

Additional taxation is not a good thing.



"Oh, contraire, taxing unit nought!"
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crbongos
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That is just the roadway impact fee. There is an additional $500 for water and $3,500 for sewer tap on top of the $1500 for road. Phased in at 50% Dec 1, 2017 and 100% Dec 2018. This is on top of crazy expensive lot prices in CS. For the last three months Bryan has pulled more single family home permits than CS. First time that's happened in ~20 yrs all due to house price. Almost no new homes in CS under $300k. Per MLS, 89% of market buys homes under 300k. I don't see any reversal any time soon. I think the market had spokenas it always does. All the impact Fred apply to commercial and multi family projects that can cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars. Interesting fact is that these impact fees only pay 15% of the total cost of such improvements. So our taxes will still he on the hook for the remaining 85%. Bryan has no impact fee. Hummmm.
Oogway
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Do you know what Bryan's percentage of taxes are paid by residential collection? I think College Station is 61% which is on the high side. More commerce would help.
isitjustme
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Yes, Bryan real estate taxes are 61 cent per $100, which is higher than in CS. But the property appraisals for similar properties are quite a bit less in Bryan as are utilities rates.
Oogway
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I mean % of taxes collected from residential vs commercial properties. I am not sure that is the same thing that you are talking about?Ideally, you would like a greater percentage of tax dollars coming from the commercial properties. Not because businesses are taxed more heavily but because your community has more of them, ie. a community with only houses and no businesses would be 100% taxes coming from residential. So 61% of the taxes collected by CS are from residences. Is it the same for Bryan?
isitjustme
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AG
Oogway said:

I mean % of taxes collected from residential vs commercial properties. I am not sure that is the same thing that you are talking about?Ideally, you would like a greater percentage of tax dollars coming from the commercial properties. Not because businesses are taxed more heavily but because your community has more of them, ie. a community with only houses and no businesses would be 100% taxes coming from residential. So 61% of the taxes collected by CS are from residences. Is it the same for Bryan?
https://docs.bryantx.gov/fiscal/FY2017_proposed_budget.pdf

Idk that answer, but on p 38 of the link above, the pie chart shows that the vast majority of revenues for Bryan come from BTU, which is where most expenditures go as well.

Only 13.7% of revenues come from taxes (netting out BTU, it would be 37.1% of revenues). That includes property and sales taxes. I don't see where property taxes are broken out commercial v residential.

Is this ideal? I have no idea, but CS and Bryan city funding mechanisms seem to be very different and probably shouldn't be compared.
HCS
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This is the letter that I sent to Council ahead of that vote. It addresses some of the issues discussed here.

Dear College Station City Council,

Impact fees provide an interesting dilemma for you. This issue shines a rather bright light on the influence of the development community in our local governance. The development community invests heavily in our local elections. And why shouldn't they? The City Council makes many decisions on issues, like impact fees, that influence their businesses.

Often the singular focus of the influence of the development community flies under the radar, cloaked in the cape of being business friendly. But this issue leaves you standing alone with no cape. The development community is the only beneficiary of this rather large government handout.

Development that necessitates increased infrastructure needs to pay these costs of its business. Otherwise, those costs fall to the citizens in the form of increased taxes. As development pushes out into new areas it requires roads, sewer, water, and emergency services. Those who do not live at these new distances from the core of the city have already paid for the infrastructure that supports them. Why should they now have to foot the bill for infrastructure that does not even serve them?

Some will say that all will benefit from increased economic activity. But that just does not bear out. Uncontrolled development reduces economic viability. Controlled development does not mean reduced amounts of development, it simply means that there is a plan for development, which, ironically, most often increases development and stabilizes it over time.

Well planned cities attract companies that provide higher paying jobs. When infrastructure follows development at the whim of land prices, developers are incentivized to leapfrog to cheaper land. This type of development increases the cost of new infrastructure and the cost of emergency services that must cover more distance to serve a spread-out population.

When good urban planning organizes development in more concentric patterns, costs are lowered and opportunities, including development opportunities, are increased. There are also other quality of life benefits such as walkable cities, reduced travel times and less traffic that are gained.

College Station has acknowledged that Texas A&M is its biggest asset. Zero impact fees work to diminish our ability to capitalize on this wonderful advantage. Businesses are drawn to universities surrounded by walkable, desirable cities, not cities that have increased taxes and sprawl development.

Impact fees provide a win-win opportunity for College Station. Make no doubt about it, a vote against impact fees is a clear vote for increased taxes and lower quality of life in College Station.
FlyRod
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Nicely done, and spot on.
dallasiteinsa02
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A development of 750 new homes will throw off about a 15 million increase in tax revenue to the city over 10 years. If a developer pays for all of their internal infrastructure, pays to connect to the greater infrastructure in terms of stop lights or other items, what is the problem? Shouldn't the city have the funds to expand services to cover the auxiliary expenses like fire, police, expanding thoroughfares.
runawaytrain
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What you have lost on is the 10 years of what it will throw off, however, the development will need services now. Not 10 years from now. Cash collection and timing of those payments make up a huge problem which you seem to have lost.
runawaytrain
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Yes that is what I am asking. Don't ask the citizens to subsidize your profits.
Oogway
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For clarification purposes, perhaps it would be helpful if we distinguish between developers and builders. Some developers are also builders, but I see the two as not the same. is this correct? A developer or development entity has the land, prepares the site including the roads (according to CS regs), etc and may or may not also build homes on the prepared sites whereas a builder (or potential homebuyer) buys the lot, pulls the permit when ready to build (and then pays the impact fee) and builds the home.

I'm no financial whiz kid, but once a developer pulls the cattle off his/her property and begins site prep, does the clock start ticking on the investment? In other words, regardless of the fees, I would imagine moving those lots becomes paramount. Does anyone know at what point the City becomes responsible for maintenance and upkeep of those roads, sewer lines etc? As the lots sell and cars start moving, the roads feel the effects. The last time I looked, it costs around $700,000 a year to repaint traffic markings on the City streets. That is just one bill due each year that we have to pay and there are a lot more bills to pay when it comes to the streets. It is a contentious topic, but a lot of perspectives.

Edit to add: traffic marking may seem like a tiny $ amount when compared to sidewalks and drainage lines, but those $ add up...
Stucco
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We reap what we sow. If COCS wasn't so annex happy it wouldn't have to provide services for all of these difficult to reach areas.
Oogway
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To which areas do you refer?
happyinBCS
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I could not find the thread about COCS building a new police station but this was close, the old Gander mountain property has been reduced from 8 million down to 6.9 million, that would make a great police station with plenty of parking and a lot less expensive than the 22 million that I hear they want to spend on a new one
Gunner740
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Yeah, I'm sure they could easily build a second and maybe even a third floor in a warehouse building designed to be a single floor structure. Not to mention, it shouldn't cost too much to build a bunch of walls, rooms, hallways, and lay all the IT infrastructure under the already poured concrete slab...
Oogway
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If the officers traded their service revolvers for bows and arrows they could keep the archery practice room....
duffelpud
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AG
Too late; they've upped the cost to $28.5 million.

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PS3D
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Gunner740 said:

Yeah, I'm sure they could easily build a second and maybe even a third floor in a warehouse building designed to be a single floor structure. Not to mention, it shouldn't cost too much to build a bunch of walls, rooms, hallways, and lay all the IT infrastructure under the already poured concrete slab...
I was thinking that the Gander Mountain building would be too impractical for an egress/ingress point. They could blast Appomattox through to Horse Haven to alleviate that, but if we were talking from a "cost savings" standpoint...
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