Anita Weston, Reporter
Rich Civic Times
GARDEN CITY, Utah.
November 26, 2013. The public
hearing was held to explain to those in attendance that the impact fee
ordinance must be renewed. Seldom do
ordinances have a time limit placed on them. There can be several reasons why
this particular ordinance was dated. It
could have been a legal requirement at time, it could have been a lack of data
concerning the culinary water system because the State was requiring Garden
City to build the water treatment plant, and so forth. The impact fee date expired September of
2013.
The question was asked if anyone had paid fees after
September of this year, and the City Clerk indicated that she would have to
check the records to see if any water impact fees had been collected since
then.
The City was unaware that the time had expired on this
ordinance until recently. The hearing
and meeting was held to renew this ordinance without any further time limits
being placed on it. There will be no
changes to the ordinance except for the removal of an expiration date.
Impact fees are assessed specifically to be used for new
construction and cannot be used to expand services to an existing system. Mr. Mecham noted that according to past tax
records, $150,000 of impact fees was used for the water treatment plant which
certainly was built for use of the existing population and not for new
construction.
Mayor Spuhler said the new plant wasn’t built big enough for
the growth of the community and had to be expanded before it was ever
completed. This growth was a result of
new construction.
Enough data about the water system had not been collected to
set proper and accurate water impact fees.
However, at the time of building of the water treatment plant, the City
was planning on developing a secondary water source which was never done. Mayor Spuhler reported that the water impact
fees charged by the City are among the lowest in the entire state. Impact fees in Montpelier , Idaho Weber County
charges about $8,000 for water fees, and Utah County
The public hearing was closed. However, this ordinance was reissued without
an expiration date during the Special City Council Meeting.
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