PROCESS OF APPROVAL
Below is a breakdown of what impact fees are and how they are determined by New Braunfels Utilities and the city of New Braunfels. Impact DETERMINING THE
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2018
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The city of New Braunfels, New Braunfels Utilities, and members of various boards and commissions were among those who met to discuss making the approved changes to impact fees.
Aug. 1, 2020 City Council adopts roadway impact fees at 50% of the maximum assessable fees for residential land uses and 25% for nonresidential land uses.
2007 City of New Braunfels establishes the roadway impact fee ordinance.
Feb. 1, 2022 NBU sta and consulting rm Freese and
Nov. 13, 2018 NBU’s last impact fee program update is approved by the City Council.
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Nichols provides a presentation of the impact fee process
Roadway impact fee timeline Water/wastewater impact fee Timeline
Understanding the fees
to the Impact Fee Advisory Committee.
Roadway impact fees are managed by the city of New Braunfels within the city limits. They can help pay for roadway projects attributed to new development, such as widening roads and putting in tra c signals. Impact fees are an assessment of new developments to fund infrastructure and adhere to Chapter 365 of the Texas Local Government Code. Water and wastewater impact fees are managed by NBU within their service area. The fees go towards funding projects including new water towers and improvements to sewage infrastructure.
SOURCE: CITY OF NEW BRAUNFELS COMMUNITY IMPACT
law to fund CIP projects attributed to growth, funds from current taxpayers will still contribute to the projects. “Impact fees are used to help pay for growth, for the capital projects that are attributed to growth,” said Dawn Schriewer, New Braunfels Utili- ties chief nancial o cer. “So at New Braunfels Utilities, we have to make sure we have the capacity to serve the growth that’s coming. We have to make sure our water treatment plants, our wastewater treatment plants, our pipeline that we have enough elevated storage, etc., that we have the capacity to serve the growth.” Curbing roadway costs The new roadway impact fee charging the maximum allowable amount will go into e ect for new developments within city limits with nal plat approval on and after March 1 at 100% of construction proj- ects attributed to new residential and nonresidential developments. Most recently, the city was collecting 50% of the nonresidential and 25% of the resi- dential fee, according to Ford. “In years past we’ve only collected a percentage of the impact fee, the city council can make a policy decision to collect anywhere from zero, no impact fees, all the way to 100% and they decided on 100%,” Ford said.
Ford said solving transportation con- gestion and the quality of roadways in New Braunfels has been a major item for the city based on community feed- back. The city considered $161 million in transportation projects to be placed on the upcoming May bond. “We have many needs in transpor- tation and are just looking for ways to fund those and a lot of these needs are based on new development,” Ford said. “The roadway impact fee pro- gram would help support a number of these projects, and actually they have been supporting projects … since the program has been in place.” Transportation projects around the city partially funded by the roadway impact fees include Barbarosa Road and FM 1101 intersection improve- ments and Common Street and Old FM 306 tra c signal and turn lanes. Preliminary designs anticipated to be funded through roadway impact fees include Common Street from Loop 337 to FM 306, Conrads Lane, Solms Road from I-35 to FM 482 and Orion Drive from Goodwin Lane to the city limits. Partial funding may also go toward citywide intersection improve- ments, according to the city. City o cials decided it was time to increase the fees for developers to help fund the large number of projects that have accumulated in New Braunfels.
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transportation and capital improve- ments director for the city of New Braunfels. “In other words, it’s new development paying for new development.” Impact fees are an assessment of new development to generate rev- enue for funding improvements to new development. Projects that may be funded through developers paying roadway impact fees include widen- ing roads, installing tra c signals and installing turning lanes. By paying water and wastewater impact fees, developers help fund the cost of proj- ects such as new water towers, drain- age and wastewater infrastructure. The maximum impact fee increase will assist in recovering the cost of an estimated $314.25 million in water and wastewater infrastructure projects and $90.6 million in roadway infra- structure projects needed to serve new development in the next 10 years. City councils across the state can make a policy decision to collect up to 100% of the impact fees. The fees are reviewed every ve years in accor- dance with Chapter 395 of the Texas Local Government Code. The city and NBU will be charging developers the full amount allowed under state
Determining the cost
A developer purchases land with the intent of constructing something on it. The city analyzes what capital improvement projects are needed for the development and calculates a fee. This may include roads, tra c signals or water towers. The developer pays the calculated impact fee to cover the cost of capital improvement projects caused by the development. The impact fee is used to supplement the cost of infrastructure improvements made necessary by the growth of the development.
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SOURCES: CITY OF NEW BRAUNFELS, NEW BRAUNFELS UTILITIES COMMUNITY IMPACT
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