Developers could face higher fees under city of Waco budget proposal

wacotrib.com

City of Waco fees for everything from development review to admission at local attractions would increase in the next budget year under staff recommendations.

City department heads outlined several proposed fee increases during a City Council Budget and Audit Committee meeting Tuesday.

City Manager Bradley Ford will file a draft 2022-23 budget on July 29, and the city will set a property tax rate and approve a budget in the following weeks. If approved, the new fee structure will take effect with the start of the 2022-23 fiscal year Oct. 1.

One proposal would bump city engineering fees from 2% to 3% of estimated construction costs. Developers pay the fees to offset costs the city incurs reviewing plans and conducting inspections related to new subdivisions, but the $200,000 to $400,000 the current fee generates annually does not cover the full cost of those services, Assistant City Manager Paul Cain said.

Individual fees differ, but Cain said they don’t collectively cover the cost of city process reviews, plan reviews and inspections conducted during construction. He said he expects resistance to the idea because of fears that the 50% increase would eat into developers’ profits.

“The main thing, politically, is that it’s always a challenge to the development community,” Cain said.

Public Works Director Amy Burlarley-Hyland said a cost analysis showed the fee would have to be set at 5% to fully offset the cost of reviews and inspections the city must complete.

“We’re working our way up to 3 now,” Burlarley-Hyland said.

Mayor Dillon Meek said he has heard complaints about inefficiencies in the development approval process and raising the fees might provoke more.

“These increases seem to be very reasonable to me,” Meek said. “Even slight increases open the door to developers, people who are regularly utilizing development services, coming to us and to y’all with frustrations.”

He said those frustrations are legitimate in some cases, but not all.

Cain said he does not think 3% is too aggressive, and he remembers 4% engineering fees 20 to 25 years ago.

Council Member Kelly Palmer said she is in favor of raising the fee because keeping it lower amounts to a drain on tax revenue that could be used elsewhere.

“So many of my residents are well below our area median income, and I don’t want their limited tax dollars subsidizing these big developers when they probably won’t ever live in these homes,” Palmer said.

Other fee proposals

The streets division recommended a creating a fee to help pay for emergency cleanup by streets crews. Burlarley-Hyland said it is usually the Waco Police Department that requests their help when a mess cuts off traffic.

“If there’s some kind of an accident and a contractor’s truck turns over and spills the contents … we want to be able to charge them the cost of us going out and doing that because that’s not a normal day-to-day,” Burlarley-Hyland said.

The traffic division recommended raising the hourly rate for barricades, cones and workers to close off streets for events by $130 during business hours and $193 outside of business hours. Fees for those services now run about $210 per hour, not counting traffic control and inspection fees.

Burlarley-Hyland’s staff also recommended adding an in-lieu fee for developers building on small lots with no room for detention ponds or other flood mitigation measures. Instead of requiring the mitigation measures, the city could use money collected from fees to pay for stormwater projects.

Other proposed fees include:

Development services fees, which start at $40, would include a $10 increase for electrical, plumbing, mechanical administration fees. Building permit fees would cost 5 cents more per square foot.

Adult admission to the Waco Mammoth National Monument would increase from $4 to $5.

Cameron Park Clubhouse rentals would cost an additional $150, bringing the rental fee to $1,250.

The Texas Ranger Museum and Hall of Fame would raise its ticket costs from $8 to $10 and raise the student group fee from 50 cents to $3.

Cameron Park Zoo’s ticket cost would rise from $13 to $14 for an adult ticket.