New development impact fees becoming effective Jan. 1 will help infrastructure for streets and parks keep pace with growth in Oklahoma City.
The Oklahoma City Council voted in April to approve the new impact fees, which are the product of years of collaboration between City staff and developers. The fees will be calculated and assessed for new development beginning New Year’s Day 2017.
How impact fees work
Local governments charge impact fees on a per-square-foot basis for new residential and commercial development projects. The fees are used to pay to build infrastructure needed to serve the new development.
Impact fees in Oklahoma can be used for construction of infrastructure, but not for maintenance. Using impact fees to help pay for new infrastructure allows more revenue from general obligation bonds to be spent on maintenance instead of new construction.
As OKC continues to grow, being able to use more bond money on maintenance is critical to keeping basic infrastructure like water, sewer service and streets in good shape. Using too much bond revenue on new construction can stretch resources too far.
‘Pay-as-we-grow’
The new streets and parks impact fees range from 61 cents to 70 cents per square foot of new residential construction, depending on the location. Partial exemptions can apply for local private parks built by the developer if the park meets criteria for size and amenities.
The new streets impact fees range from and 26 cents to $2.20 per square foot of non-residential construction, depending on the location.
The City will use the streets fees for improvements to streets required by the new developments. The parks and trails fees will be used to pay for increasing capacity in local and regional parks and trails to meet increased demands caused by the new developments.
Planning Director Aubrey Hammontree has described the use of impact fees as a “pay-as-we-grow” formula similar to the MAPS program.
Collaborative effort
Discussions about development impact fees date to as early as 2000. The City Council discussed a multi-departmental City staff study at a workshop in 2007, and staff met with private developers to discuss the fees in 2007-08.
After discussions were put on hold in the wake of the global recession, the process re-started after the state Legislature defined how cities can administer the fees in 2011. City staff began research, developed a new approach and met with stakeholder groups to review the current proposal in 2014.
Media Contact
Kristy Yager
(405) 297-2550 / (405) 863-2831
kristy.yager@okc.gov
