Denton Expected to Resume Updating of Roadway Impact Fees
The City of Denton will soon restart the discussion on its roadway impact fees. Builders and developers should be paying close attention to how this will impact their projects. The roadway fee has not seen its rate change since 2016, when Dallas BA was successful in advocating for those fees to be implemented at a lower rate than studied. It is currently anticipated that the matter could be brought before the Council in September.
In a process that involved committee review in late 2022, the Denton City Council originally planned to hold its hearings on the Roadway Impact Study and the ensuing fee adoption as early as March of 2023. The hearing was delayed a month and then delayed indefinitely, as council members voiced their desire for more information regarding what the options before them would mean in both the overall funding of the roadways listed in the city’s improvements plan, as well the impact on single and multi-family homes that would be assessed the fees per rooftop and unit.
The 2016 fee was implemented at a rate per rooftop of approximately 20% of the maximum assessable fee allowed. However, that maximum fee has increased from $9,808 for the city-wide average per single family home to $20,538 in the new study. In meetings held earlier this year, council members were evaluating whether to set the rate actually collected per home at 30%, 40%, 50%, or some other percentage of the maximum fee allowed. While that would be a major increase per home, it was not as devastating as the rate of 75% that had been raised in discussion. However, those discussions were under a previous city council and even at just 30% of the maximum, the fee could increase more than $4,000 per rooftop from the 2016 rate. With a maximum of 50%, that fee increase moves north of $8,000, with the assessment being more than $10,000 per home.
With significant growth continuing in Denton County, it is important that the roadway impact fees do not increase to a level that would not only price families out of their choice of a home, but also hurt Denton’s ability to be competitive with surrounding areas.