The Cedar City Council approved a resolution to cut $116,152 from the originally proposed impact fees of $153,527 for the SUU science center, after SUU had a disagreement with the city on what should be charged for impact fees.
Impact fees are implemented by the city government to help pay for public-service costs and fund capital improvements.
The council concluded that $37,375 was the appropriate charge for a university building as calculated under the Institute of Transportation Engineers’ Trip Generation Manual, which has a university and college category.
City Manager Ron Chandler said when the city impact fee ordinance was first created, the transportation impact fee analysis did not include a category for educational institutions and government buildings.
However in May 2009, the state legislature made a law permitting municipalities to charge impact fees on state-funded buildings.
The council eliminated the water impact fee of $13,295 because SUU officials said they would use water credits the city gave to SUU when they didn’t use them on SUU owned homes and buildings, to offset the water impact fee.
SUU didn’t use its water meters in thehomes because they were abandoned. Because they didn’t use them, the city transferred it as a credit they could use for future use.
The council also nullified the storm drain fee of $27,782 because SUU would have a storm water retention pond to retain water onsite in replace of the storm drain fee.
SUU officials questioned the transportation fee because officials contended that the building would not generate the traffic costs of $109,119 specified in the impact fee analysis.
The council reduced the fee based on the city fee ordinance that says the city reserves the right under the Impact Fees Act to assess an adjusted fee to respond to unusual circumstances and to ensure that fees are equitable assessed.
Associate Facilities Vice President Dave Tanner said the city originally charged SUU’s impact fees under the commercial category because an educational institution category didn’t exist.
“We knew it was not a fair assessment of an educational institution,” he said. “(Chandler) took on the charge to revise it to a more acceptable standard.”
Chandler said the council looks to implement a new category to the impact fee ordinance that would include university and government buildings because the current city impact fee ordinance does not have an impact fee category for educational and governmental buildings.
Chandler said the new category would be broader than an educational category because it would also include government buildings.
The city’s current categories under the transportation element of the impact fee are single family residential, multi-family residential, commerical, industrial and agricultural.
A new category would enable the council to make better assessments, Chandler said.
Chandler said he thought the revised assessment for the university was justified.
“It was great for the university and I think it’s fair,” Chandler said.
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