Council to look at impact fees
BY PHIL REYNOLDS SOUTH JETTY REPORTER

SOUTH JETTY City council members will take what will presumably be their final look at a proposal to start roadway impact fees in Port Aransas tonight, Thursday, April 17.

The proposal is one that has drawn fire in its final stages from at least one developer. Erol Hanmore has charged that the fees both are an unnecessary burden on taxpayers and that - since the council sets what fees should be charged - they can escalate without warning or voter approval.

Roadway impact fees are designed to make developers pay part of the burden of building and maintaining streets where their developments cause more traffic, thus more wear on the roadways. However, under the proposal, developers would pay at most half the cost of the street maintenance; the city will still have to pick up the other half.

Impact fees will be charged to anyone whose proposed construction is thought to add to traffic, the fee itself being based on how much traffic the construction will generate.

They can only be used for streets that are in the city's thoroughfare study and that have been identified in a master plan. Under the current proposal, those are State Hwy. 361 between Avenue G and Beach Access Road 1A; South 11th Street between Avenue G and Beach Access Road 1A; and a proposed new beach access road south of Beach Access Road 1.

City Councilman Charles Bujan has also been skeptical of the impact fees proposal since it first appeared last year. Bujan has said he wants to make sure it doesn't keep small businesses from expanding in Port Aransas and he wants to ensure it doesn't have too great an effect on lower-income residents.

Tonight's public hearing and vote on the ordinance is the third and final time it will come before the council unless more snags develop.

The council meeting is set for 5 p.m. in the council chamber, 710 W. Ave. A.