KDHNews.com

HARKER HEIGHTS — Tuesday’s City Council workshop was short, as the governing body met for just a few minutes at City Hall to set a Nov. 15 date for a public hearing on wastewater impact fees before adjourning and heading to National Night Out.

Impact fees are charges levied against commercial and residential developers to offset the financial impact of a development on public infrastructure, and wastewater impact fees are specifically designed to offset the cost of connecting a development to the city’s wastewater infrastructure.

Adoption of the ordinance proposed Tuesday would allow the city to assess and collect wastewater fees on developments without a “culpability clause,” meaning that the fees can be charged irregardless of whether a developer intendeds to negatively impact public infrastructure, and would let the city pursue delinquent developers.

According to documents distributed by the city, the impact fees proposed Tuesday will establish a collection rate per service of anywhere between $0 and $6,133 per service unit on new developments in the impact fee service area.

The fees will be assessed based on each new development’s projected load on nearby wastewater treatment facilities and the need to create or repair existing infrastructure.

The proposed ordinance may be found in Tuesday’s workshop agenda packet, and may be read online at https://bit.ly/3fIKCZx