The Upper Pine River Fire Protection District is looking into adding impact fees related to new development, similar to how the Durango Fire Protection District went about it.
The Bayfield Town Board on Tuesday tabled the matter so it can be discussed further in coming weeks. That way, it can come back in September before a 60-day deadline ends to ensure the town has time to readjust it and send comments for discussion.
Upper Pine Deputy Fire Chief Greg French told the town board that the department’s fire board directed administration to engage with a consultation group about nine months ago to study the feasibility of assessing impact fees in the district.
An impact fee is derived from projected call volumes, a capital improvement plan and projected increased call volumes as a result of growth.
“The impact fee can’t cover operating costs and all of our day-to-day operations, and it can’t cover maintenance on our existing structures or existing rolling stock. … This is just applied to new infrastructure and new rolling stock that we require to service growth,” he told The Durango Herald.
French said that increasing costs for apparatus equipment and infrastructure, plus decreasing tax revenue, prompted the impact fee study. He said the impact fee would provide the funding source so the department can get the rolling stock or provide the infrastructure to service growth as it occurs before the town sees tax revenue changes from such growth.
One fee would be for $1,191 per residence and the other would be $1,187 per 1,000 square feet of a nonresidential building, such as the new Tractor Supply location site in Bayfield, French told the board. It would be a one-time cost with regard only to new construction building permits that’d be assessed, he added.
“As the town grows, the demand on your services grow,” Trustee Kat Katsos said during Tuesday’s meeting, adding it is seen as a “buy-in” for new residents to say fire district support is needed.
French the Herald that state statute allows fire districts to charge impact fees for increased costs brought on by growth, adding that an impact fee study is regulated by state statute.
Upper Pine Fire must provide capital improvement plan details and show what capital improvements are necessary to service growth, French said.
The town board would have until September to finish putting together an ordinance it would adopt.
mhollinshead@durangoherald.com
