By Philip Haldiman
Mail | X: @PhilipHaldiman

For months, the city has been working on updating its development impact fees, one-time charges meant to offset the cost of future development.

These are fees charged directly to the developers of new builds and are not taxes to current residents.

Some proposed fees are going up and some are going down, but the northern part of the city, where most of the new development will occur in the coming years, could see some steep increases.

The city and Maricopa Association of Governments project residential growth will be 20% over the next 10 years, which amounts to 40,450 people and 17,000 new homes.

For non-residential growth, they project growth will also be 20% over the next 10 years, amounting to about 7,000 new jobs and 3.3 million new square feet.

Councilmember Brad Shafer, who represents the northern part of the city, said the proposed impact fees in his district for residential will increase 63.9% and standalone businesses will increase 68.3%.
Shafer says the increases are very significant and could drive away developers and builders as well as mom and pop shops.

“My residents continue to ask for the special shops. They don’t want McDonald’s. They don’t want the chains, right, they want the stand-alone restaurants and those increases will push them to other cities,” he said. “I love Peoria and I want to see my city at the top of every list, except when it comes to the cost of living and cost of doing business. I don’t like to see that in other cities it is cheaper to do business.”

Impact fees are charged directly to developers at the time of building permit issuance and are meant to offset the costs associated with providing necessary public services to new developments, including the costs of infrastructure and other improvements.

The fees are divided into regions/zones throughout the city and go to a number of things including streets, water, wastewater, public safety and parks.

Council will consider the proposed fees Oct. 1, and if approved would go into effect Dec. 15.

Stakeholder meetings have been held throughout the process and feedback has been received, according to a staff report. Officials said numerous questions were submitted and responses were issued and posted on the city’s website. The study has been updated several times throughout the process to incorporate stakeholder feedback.

Mayor Jason Beck said developers will want to develop in Peoria regardless of what the impact fees will be.

“If we are going to morally drive this forward, we need to make sure that we are actually doing appropriate cost structures in different areas of the city where there is new development and that is why impact fees are so high for these types of areas wherever new construction has to be done,” he said.

Philip Haldiman can be reached at phaldiman@iniusa.org, or on Twitter @philiphaldiman. We’d like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org.

Philip Haldiman
News Editor | Peoria

phaldiman@iniusa.org

Philip Haldiman is a third generation Arizona native with brief residencies on the east and west coasts. He has bachelor’s degrees in Theater and Journalism at Arizona State University, and is an award winning journalist with more than 15 years worth of experience in reporting and editing. Most recently, he took first place for investigative reporting and third place for best sustained coverage or series at the 2023 Arizona Newspapers Association awards. In his free time, he produces an autobiographical comic book about his time spent in Hollywood and his life as a cult film star.