Chapter 70
IMPACT FEES
[HISTORY: Adopted
by the Town Board of the Town of Troy 6-9-2003 by Ord No. 03-2. Amendments
noted where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Building construction — See Ch. 27.
Subdivision of land — See Ch. 135.
§ 70-1. Authority and intent.
Pursuant to § 66.0617,
Wis. Stats., this chapter is enacted to establish the mechanism for imposing
impact fees upon land development to finance the capital costs of acquiring,
establishing, upgrading, expanding, and constructing public facilities that are
necessary to accommodate such development. This chapter is intended to assure
that new land development bears an appropriate share of the cost of capital
expenditures necessary to provide such public facilities within the Town of
Troy and its service areas as are required to serve the needs arising out of land
development. As provided in § 66.0617(2)(b), Wis. Stats., the Town of Troy, by
adopting this chapter, is not intending to limit its authority to finance
public facilities by any other means authorized by law, including, without
limitation, the means authorized by § 236.13(2) and (2m), Wis. Stats., and any
other statutes or ordinances.
§ 70-2. Public facilities needs assessment.
In accordance with §
66.0617(4), Wis. Stats., the Town of Troy has prepared a public facility needs
assessment for which it is anticipated that impact fees may be imposed. A copy
of the public facilities needs assessment titled “public facilities needs
assessment, Town of Troy, Wisconsin” dated May 2003, prepared by Cedar
Corporation, is on file and available for public inspection and copying at the
office of the Town Clerk-Treasurer.
§ 70-3. Definitions.
The definitions set forth
in § 66.0617(1), Wis. Stats., and any amendments thereto, are hereby
incorporated and made a part of this chapter as is fully set forth herein. In
addition, in this chapter the following definition shall apply:
RESIDENTIAL EQUIVALENT
UNIT (REU) — A unit of measure for impact fees equivalent to one residential
dwelling unit and/or one acre of industrial or commercial development area for
which a building permit is issued in the Town of Troy after the date of
enactment of this chapter. For purposes of calculating the public water or
sewer impact fee for residential development, one REU is equivalent to one
dwelling unit.
§ 70-4. Establishment of impact fees.
A. The following fees are impact fees established by the Town
pursuant to § 66.0617, Wis. Stats.:
(1) Road improvement impact fees in the amount of $2,010 per REU as
set forth in the public facilities needs assessment.
(2) Town facilities impact fees in the amount of $380 per REU as set
forth in the public facilities needs assessment.
(3) Recreational improvement impact fees in the amount of $570 per
REU as set forth in the public facilities needs assessment.
(4) Fire protection well impact fees in the amount of $190 per REU as
set forth in the public facilities needs assessment.
B. These impact fees shall be imposed on any person seeking to
construct or create a land development within the Town, including land development
on vacant land and land development on lots created before and after the
effective date of this chapter.
§ 70-5. Standards for fees.
Impact fees imposed under
this section:
A. Shall bear a rational relationship to the need for new, expanded
or improved public facilities that are required to serve land development.
B. May not exceed the proportionate share of the capital costs
that are required to serve land development as compared to existing land uses
of land within the Town of Troy.
C. Shall be based upon actual capital costs or reasonable estimates
of capital costs for new, expanded or improved facilities.
D. Shall be reduced to compensate for other capital costs imposed
by the Town of Troy with respect to land development to provide or pay for
public facilities, including special assessments, special charges, land
dedications, or fees in lieu of land dedication, under Ch. 236, Wis. Stats., or
any other items of value.
E. Shall be reduced to compensate for moneys received from the federal
or state government specifically to provide or pay for the public facilities
for which the impact fees are imposed.
F. May not include amounts necessary to address existing
deficiencies in public facilities.
§ 70-6. Time limit for expenditures.
A. The Town determines the following lengths of time appropriate
for the planning, financing, acquisition and construction of the public
facilities listed below:
|
|
Type of Facility |
Maximum Time to
Use |
|
|
Road improvement facilities |
20 years |
|
|
Town facilities |
20 years |
|
|
Recreational improvement facilities |
20 years |
|
|
Fire protection well facilities |
20 years |
B. Impact fees held by the Town under this chapter and not used
within the time period specified herein shall be refunded to the persons who
are the owners of record, at the expiration of such time period, of the
property upon which the impact fees were imposed.
§ 70-7. Payment.
Unless otherwise expressly
provided herein, all required impact fees shall be paid in full before issuance
of a building permit by the Town for any development to which the impact fee
applies. Impact fee rates that are in effect at the time of building permit
issuance shall apply. Impact fee payments shall be the responsibility of the
owner of record at the time of building permit issuance.
§ 70-8. Administration.
Revenues collected by the
Town as impact fees shall be placed by the Town Clerk-Treasurer in segregated
interest-bearing accounts and shall be accounted for separately from other
funds of the Town. Impact fee revenues and interest earned on impact fee
revenues may be expended by the Town only for the capital costs for which the
impact fees were imposed. These costs may include the costs of debt service on
bonds or similar instruments when the debt has been incurred for the purpose of
proceeding with designated public facilities projects prior to the collection
of all anticipated impact fees for that project, to reimburse the Town for
advances of other funds or reserves, and such other uses consistent with §
66.0617, Wis. Stats., which are recorded and approved by the Town Board.
§ 70-9. Installment payments.
The Town Board may, in its
sole discretion, authorize by resolution the payment of impact fees in
installment payments. If installment payments are authorized, interest shall be
paid on the installment payments at the same rate then charged by the Town on
installment payments for special assessments.
§ 70-10. Appeals.
A. No appeal may be commenced pursuant to this section if any
applicable impact fee or installment payment is delinquent. No impact fee
payment obligation shall be suspended during the pendency of any appeal filed
pursuant to this section.
B. Pursuant to § 66.0617(10), Wis. Stats., the only issues upon
which an impact fee appeal can be raised are the following:
(1) The amount of the impact fee imposed by the Town and paid by the
developer.
(2) The method of collection of the impact fee.
(3) The purpose for which impact the Town expends fee funds.
C. Appeals must be brought within 30 days of the earlier of:
(1) The due date for payment of the applicable impact fee; or
(2) The due date of the first installment payment.
D. The appellant shall pay a filing fee of $200 at the time of
filing of the appeal. The notice of appeal shall be filed with the Town
Clerk-Treasurer.
E. Following the filing of the notice of appeal, the Town Clerk-Treasurer
shall compile a record of the ordinance imposing the contested impact fee and a
record of the management and expenditures of the impact fee. The Town
Clerk-Treasurer shall transmit these documents to the Town Board. The Town
Clerk-Treasurer shall also compile a report for each appeal in which the
appellant is seeking a total or partial refund of the impact fee paid. This
report shall specify the fiscal impact of a successful appeal on the Town of
Troy. The fiscal impact report shall estimate whether it will be necessary for
the Town to adjust impact fees or amend existing ordinances if there is a
successful appeal.
F. The Town Board shall hold a public hearing on the appeal,
preceded by a Class 1 notice, providing fair opportunity for the appellant to
be heard. The burden shall be on the appellant to establish illegality or
impropriety of the impact fee at issue. Following the close of the public
hearing, the Town Board shall deliberate upon the matter and shall conduct any
studies and inquiries it deems appropriate to decide the appeal.
G. If the Town Board determines that the appeal has merit, it shall
determine appropriate remedies. These may include reallocation of the proceeds
of the challenged impact fee to accomplish the purposes for which the fee was
collected; refunding the impact fee in full or in part, along with interest
collected by the Town thereon; granting the appellant the opportunity to make
the impact fee payment in installments; or such other remedies as it deems
appropriate in a particular case.
§ 70-11. Reduction in impact fee.
The Town Board may, at its
sole discretion, agree to lessen the amount of the impact fee imposed on a
specific development to accommodate the construction of state- or
federal-funded low- or moderate-income housing within the Town. Pursuant to §
66.0617(6), Wis. Stats., no amount of an impact fee for which a reduction is
provided under this section may be shifted to any other development in the land
development in which the low-cost housing is located or to any other land
development in the political subdivision.
§ 70-12. Periodic review of impact fees.
The Town Board may periodically review the impact fees established herein and modify them, if necessary, to account for changing facility needs, inflation, revised cost estimates, capital improvements, changes in other funding sources applicable to public facility projects and other relevant factors and in accordance with the standards for impact fees set forth in § 66.0617, Wis. Stats.