Impact fees eyed as infrastructure solution
BY PHIL REYNOLDS SOUTH JETTY REPORTER

As Port Aransas grows, wouldn't it be a good idea if developers paid part of the cost of expanding city services such as streets, fire and police protection and sewers?

That's exactly what a process known as impact fees is designed to do. And city council members, along with the city's planning and zoning commission, were scheduled to take a long look at the impact fees process on Wednesday.

Impact fees have been available to Texas cities since the legislature authorized them in the late 1980s. Port Aransas hasn't put them to use earlier because there's been no need. But with an ambitious program of upgrading the city's storm sewers and streets, City Manager Michael Kovacs has recommended impact fees as a way to spread out the cost of adding new streets and sewer lines, as well as other city services.

He told the council during its Sept. 4 meeting, at which it approved this year's tax rate and budget, that while city reserves would be used for the Oleander Street drainage project and city bonds would pay for street and drainage projects approved by voters in November, impact fees could be used to partially finance such projects as the redesign and rebuilding of South 11th Street.

The council has had its eye on 11th Street for more than a year. It's known for having changed from a single family residential neighborhood to an area of short-term rentals to visitors. Further, because it's one of the few streets that has a clear shot from Avenue G to Beach Access Road 1A, 11th Street has become more and more used as an arterial street rather than a neighborhood street. Because off that, planners - and the council itself - have talked of rebuilding the street and adding curbs, gutters and sidewalks. Thus, 11th Street would have a much wider roadway, with one traffic lane in each direction as well as a center left-turn lane, plus sidewalks on each side.

Nick Lorette, a developer who is also a member of the city's planning and zoning commission, said 11th Street is "an example of the perfect use of impact fees."

"I'm really a proponent of them," Lorette said. "It's a consumer tax any way you look at it. But as long as the market will bear it, and I think it will here, I'll pass the cost on to the buyer."

The so-called fees aren't cure-alls, however. State law specifies what they can be used for: "lump-sum charges, capital recovery fees, contributions in aid of construction."

They can't be used for dedication of land for parks, dedication of rights of way or easement of construction, pro-rata fees for reimbursement of water or sewer lines extended by the city or several other items.

They also can't be assessed against projects already under way. That leaves out such developments as the initial section of Newport Villages, a project on both sides of State Hwy. 361 that is expected to include more than 2,000 homes, more than one hotel and a boat marina. It's being built by Texas Gulf & Harbor Ltd., the parent company behind the Newport Golf Course.

The council is expected to set a date for a workshop on impact fees before the end of the year. That will be held with consultants who are working with the city on the comprehensive plan.