Sexy sexy street fees
There are few issues sexier than Fresno street fees. We dare you to name one. What is sexier and more interesting than the money people have to pay to pave roads, and then watch the paint dry? Street fees are so sexy they haven't been raised in 15 years. Hott.
Here are some reasons from the Planning Commission's Jaime Holt on why you should care about street fees, as mentioned on MindHub:
#1 Street fees in Fresno have not been raised in 15 years
#2 While this is a large jump in fees, it is reflective not of the city
taking advantage of the development community, but rather of a
collaborative process (which included developers) that retifies [sic] years of failure on the part of the city to keep fees in line with the pace of
development.
#3 The proposal encourages in-fill development by making fees 3 times
higher on the city's fringe (a key goal of the mayor Creative Economies
Council)
#4 This proposal takes the long-view and puts into place a workable
system which will get Fresno back on track.
I Went to One of these Sexy Meetings
I went to one the meetings Wednesday that was targeted at business and economic development and how the fees may effect it, and, attended by around fifteen people I was the only one of general public in attendance. A previous meeting was held earlier in the afternoon primarily for developers, attended by around sixty people.
While Jarah is correct the inner city , about half the city,is taxed at a much smaller amount,the residential category(single family) was much smaller then the other categories of residential multi family i.e. apartments, condos and townhouses) , commercial retail, commercial office , light and heavy industries. It was based on how many vehicles trips were generated by each type of structure, with a home less traveled to then an apartment or a retail business such as a grocery store. For the core of the city it is $8,361 total fee for an acre of single family homes a developer has to pay, and $27,151 per acre in the growth area. A condo, apartment, townhouse would be $15,663 in the core, and $52,242 in the growth area.
If the city wants to increase the density of housing units such as lofts or townhouses as stated in the 2025 General Plan, it seems to me that it should encourage that by making the medium /high density fee smaller and the single family units higher.
I am not sure if these fees as written so far stimulate mixed use and higher density buildings in our future, which we need to in order to cut down on miles traveled which gives us less pollution and congestion, and less infrastructure costs such as sewer lines ,fire and police coverage etc.
The commercial developers were not happy in the meeting about their having to pay $70,353 in the growth area when compared to the single family houses of $27,151.
Post new comment