Adequate to cover the costs. And competitive with other communities. Those should be the objectives of the Modesto City Council as it begins a big-picture review of its many development fees — the charges imposed on anyone seeking to build or expand a home, business or industrial plant. The review is motivated by city leaders' concerns that its fees are so high that they are discouraging business and homebuilding. Business should be the primary concern, because our community has a far greater need for permanent jobs than it does for more houses.
Tuesday, the council's Finance Committee approved creation of a 13-member task force to conduct the review, an assignment likely to take six months or more. Task force recommendations ultimately will go to the full council for decisions. Cynics suggest this is tantamount to turning control of the city over to the homebuilders, reviving the ghost of the Village I. We have more faith in current leaders. Village I showed what can go wrong when fees are not adequate to cover the cost of growth. In the early 1990s, the council — with our support at the time — dropped development fees by an average of 30 percent to try to jump-start construction in the neighborhood. It should have been a very temporary move, but wasn't. Ten years later, it was painfully apparent that the city was millions in the hole. Since 2003, the council has raised and expanded fees significantly.
Some of the most aggressive fee increases have been for water and sewer connections, to pay for the expensive but necessary citywide improvements in those systems. Other agencies have added or increased fees during this period, too, on top of the city's fees. The result today is that building or expanding anything requires thousands of dollars — and a long list of agencies to satisfy. Furthermore, the fees set in 2005 and 2006 were based on land values and construction costs much higher than they are today. So we agree that a review is needed, both to identify individual fees that are too high or too low but also to provide a big picture view of how Modesto stacks up against other valley cities. Finally, this process should result in a framework for the city to adjust fees on a regular basis, not just in reaction to the economy's ups and downs. The task force will be comprised of one council member, five city staffers, four representatives from development-construction groups and three members of the public. The Finance Committee increased the public representation from one to three — a good move.
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Don Quixote Note: Results of Vernon's DCC study that will be up for 3rd reading before Provincial Approval and final adoption will occur Monday Dec. 14. Details below:
- Current Vs Proposed DCC Rates - 13 Kb
- Proposed DCC Projects - 2.62 MB
- DCC Sector Map- 492Kb
- Draft DCC Report - 3.32Mb
One of the 6 guiding principles of this study was "Benefiter Pays – Those who benefit from the new infrastructure should pay for the installation of such systems." Please read the report and be the judge and/or critic.
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