City Council Minutes 2017 05 16 - Laserfiche WebLink

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City Council Meeting Minutes May 16, 2017 Page 7 of 18 Mr. Hartronft stated the fees seem to encourage office, but should be incentivizing retail. He noted fees are going up close to 600% which causes alarm for developers He supports paying for impacts but thinks perhaps this sends the message we are not open to development. He is afraid we are pacing out good development. Randy Caranci, 441 Elk Trail, Lafayette, felt the process had not been transparent enough. The fee differences for office and industrial are tremendous. It makes Louisville seem not open for business. He inquired why BRaD (Business Retention and Development) did not weigh in on this ordinance. Taxes are going up too fast Commercial and office are taking the brunt of this He asked Council to put this on hold to get additional information Council Comments Mayor Muckle noted impact fees are not used as incentives, we have other policies to address that This is simply for new development to pay their fair share of impact costs. Councilmember Loo asked Director Zuccaro how impact fees affect residential expansions Director Zuccaro stated the new impact calculation is supposed to be a reasonable compromise where the cost is tied to finish work and is free up to the point where more residents are added Councilmember Maloney asked about Mr. Dalton's suggestion to remove the language concerning additions. He was not so concerned about a bedroom being added but more about the additions which might double or tnple the size of the home. Councilmember Stolzmann stated her support for the ordinance as proposed; she felt the committee made a good recommendation with a lot of work put in and there needs to be something to address adding square footage which will affect impact. Mayor Pro Tem Lipton asked if finishing a basement would trigger the impact fee. Director Zuccaro stated yes under this calculation; it adds more livable area which would be more likely to add more people to the community. Councilmember Stolzmann stated if we don't use this approach we need to do a per unit basis. Councilmember Maloney agreed it correlates between square footage and number of persons in a home which relates to impact. It is a philosophy basis for the fee. Councilmember Loo stated her concern the fee becomes cost prohibitive; people simply will do remodels without getting a permit which would make it Tess safe.