Oswego Village Board members Tuesday as a committee of the whole will consider a proposal to have “periodic reviews” and some level of increase in impact fees developers pay to the village, schools, park district, library and fire district in town.
Village staff in March was directed to prepare a report to trustees on the feasibility of increasing all impact fees by 6.5% and then annually pegged to the Consumer Price Index and a comparative analysis with what other, similar communities are charging.
Staff is prepared to bring back information on several other related topics, including a proposal to increase fire district impact fees on senior housing, officials said.
More Top Picks Pressure Washers
Trustees will meet as a committee of the whole at 6 p.m. Tuesday at 100 Parkers Mill in Oswego.
A new fee structure was last approved in 2015 following a study of local government entities that did away with a “complicated impact fee structure,” Oswego Village Administrator Dan Di Santo said in his report to trustees.
“Remaining competitive with neighboring communities on collection of all development-related fees is important to stay within market,” Di Santo said. “In the past, when the village has greatly exceeded the market rate, developers have stopped building in Oswego. Once our fees were corrected to market, we saw a resurgence of development.”
Oswego continues to see “strong development interest” under the current fee structure, he said.
“Staff cautions the board about increasing fees too high where this balance could be disrupted. For that reason, we recommend periodic reviews of fees rather than automatic escalators,” Di Santo said of the proposal for annual hikes based on the Consumer Price Index.
The village administrator noted in the report there is “no perfect comparison” with other communities since fees are “assessed differently” in each municipality. However, statistics are provided in the report.
Staff does recommend a review of the board’s previous interest in increasing water connection fees to help pay for the transition to Lake Michigan water.
“Oswego’s fee is low, and staff recommends increasing this fee to allow development to pay their fair share towards this important infrastructure project,” Di Santo said.
Other impact fees could be lowered to reflect the water connection fee hike, he said.
Staff’s recommendation in the report is to offer some increases, including the total fee for homes. Oswego’s total fees for a single-family unit are approximately $23,870 and a $3,000 increase (12.6 %) would have the village remaining competitive, according to the report.
An increase of $1,000 to $3,000 for water connection fees would translate to a 45.5% to 136.4% increase for those.
Staff recommends continuing with the village’s policy to waive school fees on senior housing since it does not generate school-age children.
However, staff does suggest a proposal to double the impact fees collected for the fire district for senior housing developments. The data shows that senior housing sees 1.8 times as many calls for fire service compared to non-senior housing, according to the report.
Linda Girardi is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.