Rapid City repeals water-impact fee

By Bill Harlan, Journal Staff Writer | Wednesday, October 08, 2003

Previous Page

Share

• del.icio.us
• Digg
• NewsVine
• Fark

Print

Email

RAPID CITY -- If you plan to build a home in Rapid City this month, procrastination could save you $1,000.

The Rapid City Council on Monday night repealed the city's controversial water- impact fee — only 16 months after voters approved it — but acting City Attorney Jason Green said the city would continue charging the fee until early November. City ordinances don't take effect until 20 days after publication, he said.

Impact fees are charged when building permits are issued.

Rapid City charges water-impact fees for new connections to the city water system. The fees range from $750 for a one-bedroom apartment to $1,000 for a new home.

The city collected about half a million dollars in impact fees during the first year, and the money must be spent for expanding the municipal water system. Green said the city would not refund fees already paid under the short-lived ordinance.

The city council has debated water and sewer impact fees for years. Last year, then-Mayor Jerry Munson argued that impact fees would shift some costs of development to the people who benefited most.

Developers opposed Munson's idea. So did the majority of the city council, which rejected impact fees three times. Munson ended up supporting a petition drive to put the issue to a citywide vote, along with a similar sewer-impact fee.

The sewer fee failed in the June 2002 election, but voters narrowly approved the water-impact fee.

Monday night, the council voted 7-3 to repeal it.

Alderman Tom Murphy, who voted against the repeal, agreed with Munson. "Growth should pay for growth," Murphy said Tuesday. "And the people voted for it."

A city task force earlier this year recommended eliminating the impact fee, but Murphy said the task force was stacked with opponents of the measure. "I don't think the citizens got a fair chance in that committee," he said.

Alderman Ron Kroeger, who is council president, voted for the repeal. He opposes impact fees on principle. "They have the effect of hampering growth and economic development," he said.

Alderman Alan Hanks voted for the repeal, too, but he said he wasn't opposed to all impact fees. "I opposed this one because it never named a specific project or specific dollar amount," Hanks said Tuesday. "All we were doing is collecting money with no purpose in mind, and I'm opposed to that."

Hanks also cited confusion among city officials over when to charge fees, how to enforce them and how to handle exemptions. "We spent as much money trying to defend impact fees as we've probably collected from them," he said.

Local home builders opposed the impact fees from the beginning.

"Any time you add a cost to homes, it puts that many more people out of a home," Black Hills Homebuilders Association spokeswoman Jeanette McIntyre said. "Homeowners are the real winners here."

She also said the ordinance was "hastily put together and flawed."

Alderman Rick Kriebel, who supports impact fees and voted against the repeal, agreed the current ordinance was flawed. "We all knew that," he said.

But Kriebel also pointed out that the city routinely expands its water system in advance of development. People already on the system pay for much of that expansion. "Fees are just a way to pay back current water users," he said.

McIntyre said other mechanisms, such as "special assessments," could do the same thing on a case-by-case basis.

Hanks said he hoped the state Legislature would consider a measure that would set guidelines for impact fees. "That would give us more credibility," he said.

Contact Bill Harlan at 394-8424 or bill.harlan@rapidcityjournal.com