Denison considers impact fees amid new development

Denison may soon become the latest city to ask incoming development to pay for its impact on local infrastructure and utilities. The City Council voted unanimously Monday to approve a $198,000 professional services agreement with Huitt-Zollars for a study on instituting impact fees for new and future development within the city.

Impact fees have been gaining popularity among cities across the region as a way to finance infrastructure improvements without increasing taxes for current residents by instead charging future growth based on how much use and demand the development will put on the system.

“As most of you know, most of our peer cities in North Texas have implemented impact fees over the past decade or prior,” Denison Capital Improvements Plan Manager Fanchon Stearns saidsaid Monday. “Existing folks in our community currently carry the cost to improve water, wastewater and street systems. Impact fees would require new development to assist in these improvements based on the impact each individual development would have on the system.”

Impact fees have been increasing in use in recent years as cities have looked at alternative forms of projects amid high-growth in recent and development. After a lengthy development process and debates and discussions by the city council, Sherman instituted impact fees in the fall of 2020. For his part, Denison Interim City Manager Bobby Atteberry said he initially pitched the idea in 2016, but the project did not gain momentum until recently.

“There was a time when we didn’t need to do impact fees because we didn’t have enough going on we thought for that really to be effective, but now we are behind the 8-ball with all the growth that’s upon us,” Atteberry said last month during the city’s annual budget retreat.

The impact fee ordinance would create a calculation to determine how much a new development will impact different infrastructure ranging from roads to water and sewer services. From there, a one-time fee will be assessed, allowing for the project to pay for its demand on the system and allow for improvement.

“I assure you that the larger developers we are looking at come in and say, ‘How much are your impact fees,’ because they expect to pay for this,” Atteberry said.

As a part of creating impact fees, the city and its consultants will conduct meetings, data collections and reviews alongside capital improvement plans and other hearings.

Mayor Janet encouraged the city to move forward quickly on the implementation as projects that are platted are not subject to the fees.

Atteberry estimated that the project may take 8 months to complete before it is sent to the council for approval.