This is not new news but was recently featured in a local business publication and is a good eye opener in a tough economy where housing starts are at a slow trickle.  Southern Arizona Home Building Association (SAHBA) produced an Impact Fee Study in December of 2007 which looks at all of the “impact” fees just to pull a permit for a typical 2,000 square-foot new built home at a median price of $237,470.  The term “impact fee” in this report goes a little beyond what I would expect is an impact fee but I do agree with the items included in the report.

For example waste water is listed as an impact fee.  Waste water fees are based on all plumbing fixtures that get attached to the sewer.  Construction wise it isn’t difficult for one to connect to the sewer line is located in your street or alley, but what happens when more and more connections are made to the same sewer?  You need a larger pipe?  No, not usually, developers install and pay for these lines which are engineered appropriately.  Where we get in trouble is at the waste water plant at the end of the line.  It costs a lot of money to maintain a waste water plant and some day the need for a  larger plant to replace that one will occur.  Careful planning, engineering and construction will hopefully put this in place prior to overwhelming the plant.  

How are fees calculated for this? Waste water and engineers have developed a term called  a Fixture Unit and each fixture is made up of one or more fixture units depending on the amount of water and waste that is produced by that fixture.  A toilet for example is 4 Fixture Units.  A lavatory 1.  Pima County Waste Water charges a fee which is currently somewhere around $400 for a fixture unit. Hopefully this fee isn’t too high or low and will allow for the building of a new plant without additional tax dollars being spent.  

Charts show us that a toilet is 4FU and a little math give us a a $1600.00 connection (read:impact) fee.  One can see how this adds up very, very quickly.  Other impact fee categories like water meters and Water system development impact fees are not comprised of an easy to calculate formula; one must inquire what the fee currently is to connect a new water meter to their property and pay if you need one. You will however pay more for a larger water meter.

If you are building a new home and wish to go with a grey water system you will not receive any waste water discount for fixtures draining to an approved area other than the sewer.  The thought behind this is that every fixture can potentially drain to the sewer.  I’m sure it is also partially based on the fact that your home was figured in a complex planning formula to help pay for this waste water plant.   In the City of Tucson other impact fees include Roads, Parks, Police and Fire.  If one builds on the last lot in an inner city neighborhood one will still have the pay the Road, Parks, Police and Fire impact fees even though all of this infrastructure has been built and is existing.  Sound fair?  Not really, and who said life was fair? 

I see some room for improvement on how impact fees are figured and charged. I believe I’ve said this before but here it is again:  Perhaps this could be a starting point to give the economy a jump start and promote green or sustainable design.

The total fees (from least to most expensive) are as follows:  

Pima County: $21,353
Sahuarita: $22,853
Tucson: $26,434
Marana: $27,965 
Oro Valley $29,067 

For the break down please visit SAHABA’s PDF here: http://www.sahba.org/sahba_news/08GovtFees.pdf  there is also a little commentary on how this fee when paid as part of a 30-year mortgage exceeds the Median Income of Households in Pima County.

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