Durango Fire Protection District is pursuing impact fees within our fire district. Impact fees are a way to assure that the rate of growth of the community does not outpace the capacity for essential services.
The expense of expanding infrastructure to accommodate new growth can overwhelm a community quickly, especially in systems where those essential services are struggling to keep up with the current demands for service.
When evaluating costs of updating, modernizing and expanding essential services to assure quality service is provided to a community, part of the expenses should be paid by the current residents. These are the costs of normal care and maintenance, replacement of stations and trucks that serve the current residents and the existing needs of the system. Based on the study completed for the district, 76 percent of our Capital Improvement Plan should be funded by current residents. The voters approved this funding on Nov. 7.
The impact-fee program is an effort to fund the other 24 percent of the total plan. This portion of the capital plan is not the responsibility of the existing residents. These fees would fund the necessary expansion of the fire and ambulance service needed to serve new demands. The impact fees are only collected from new construction in our community. If you already live here, or if you already own a commercial building, you have already paid for your portion of the fire and ambulance system.
The concept is not much different than if you want to get domestic water or sewer service. There is a cost to buy into the system that has been built to provide the service (tap fee), then you pay an amount to support the system (use fee or tax). In this case, current residents of our community have paid the district to provide a level of service. That service would be strained if too many users joined and did not help to expand the service. Once the newcomers have bought into the service, they are then part owners, just like all the other members of our community, and they support the service with their taxes.
The risk of not supporting impact fees is that as more and more houses and businesses move into our community, the service continues to be asked to handle higher call volumes and to expand to areas where services are limited. Without financial support to appropriately expand the services, the existing services are busy more often, response times get longer and the community is not served as well. In the end, the people of our community suffer and do not get the level of service they have helped build and have supported with their tax money.
The city of Durango already collects impact fees to support the need to expand city services. Similarly, La Plata County is examining what programs it may be able to support with impact fees. In 2016, the Colorado State Legislature opened the door for fire districts to have similar ability to implement impact fees through approval of House Bill 16-1088, which was signed into law by Gov. John Hickenlooper in August 2016. Once the bill passed, our district had a third party assess the needs of our community and ensure we will continue to meet those needs.
The fee to support the new growth portion of the capital improvement plan for the fire and ambulance service would be $988 for each new house, and $1.44 per square foot of new commercial space. It is important to remember that these fees only apply to new construction in our fire district. If you already own a house, or own commercial property, these fees do not apply to you. You have helped to build the fire and ambulance service, and your property tax covers all that you need to pay to support this essential service. The impact fees apply only to new construction that impacts the ability to provide fire and ambulance coverage for our community.
More information, including the full report on fire impact fees, can be found at durangofire.org. You can find frequently asked questions with answers on our site. There is also the option to ask questions and see posted answers in an effort to ensure our public is fully aware of our efforts to fund our future capital needs.
Hal Doughty has been in the fire service for 30 years and served as fire chief of the Durango Fire Protection District since 2015. Reach him at 382-6000.
