LEAGUE CITY - In effort to offset costs of booming growth, the city council in a 6-1 vote Tuesday adopted a 93 percent increase in capital recovery impact fees charged to developers for connecting to municipal water and wastewater systems.

Councilman Tommy Cones cast the dissenting vote.

The impact fees will increase from just less than $8,000 for each connection to a state-allowed maximum of about $15,000.

Revenue collected from the fees helps offset the city’s cost to provide water and wastewater infrastructure to meet the demands of growth, officials said.

The fees are part of the cost developers have to consider with new commercial and residential building and are passed on to homebuyers and commercial tenants.

Although the fees developers face in League City are among the stiffest in the state, it’s just part of doing business in a desirable city, Randy Hall, CEO of Windy Hill Development and a League City resident, said.

“It is a real plus when you have a very attractive community,” Hall said. “The city has a lot to offer and has yet to be developed along the west side.”

“I think it’s important for the city to take a very broad-based approach on what is quality growth,” he said.

Despite booming growth over the past 10 years, the city is only about 40 percent developed, officials said.

Application fees alone are $3,000 in League City, which is just the ante, John Baumgartner, city manager, said.

“That means you’re looking at about $25,000 a home just in fees, and that’s before you even start building it,” he said.

Despite that, there’s no sign of slowing in the residential growth that drove League City’s population to 116,000 people in 2020 from a mere 83,500 in 2020, officials said.

In fact, the city was projecting 600 new homes would go up this year, Baumgartner said.

“When you look at a city that is growing rapidly, when you talk about citizens and growth, this is an example,” Baumgartner said. “Developers like the lowest fees. Citizens don’t want to contribute more of their funds to support the growth.

“At the end of the day, the person who pays the real fee is the person who buys the new home,” Baumgartner said.

Although not opposed to the fee increase, one developer said the city should get more creative in attracting commercial building.

“The city could make an outward expression of how they want to work with developers in a partner relationship,” James Brockway, broker and owner of League City-based Brockway Commercial, said.

Sarah Grunau: 409-683-5226; sarah.grunau@galvnews.com