Lebanon
Plans to reduce Lebanon’s “impact fees” will be discussed by the city’s Planning Board on Aug. 13. If approved, business leaders say the proposed change could spur the creation of new housing projects.
“I would say that’s a positive development,” Rob Taylor, executive director of the Lebanon Area Chamber of Commerce, said on Wednesday. “We’ve very much focused on the housing issue and the availability of housing. The city of Lebanon obviously has a very large role to play.”
Impact fees allow cities to recoup the cost of public services, such as fire and police protection, that are extended to new developments through a one-time charge calculated by square footage. Every two years, Lebanon calculates new fees by examining the city’s needs.
For instance, the fee to help pay for recreation projects is slated to decrease after consultants found that donations and grants for the Mascoma River Greenway, a roughly 4-mile rail trail connecting downtown to West Lebanon, beat expectations, according to Lebanon Planning Director David Brooks.
The city also intends to decrease the fee designated for the Lebanon School District because it received additional state aid for Lebanon Middle School, he said.
“The overall goal is that (the fees) have to be fair and reflective of the actual costs,” Brooks said on Wednesday.
The proposed fees — ranging from 22 cents per square foot for warehouse space to $2.48 per square foot for some types of residential housing — are a slight decrease from current rates, which were adopted in 2016.
Under the plan, the fee to build a single-family home in Lebanon would drop to $2.02 per square foot, down from $2.25 per square foot. That would mean a developer would pay $4,040 in impact fees to build a 2,000 square foot home.
Impact fees for commercial or retail development are less than residential, and would range from 22 cents to 64 cents per square foot. That would mean a 100,000-square-foot retail and restaurant complex would be charged $64,000 in impact fees. The fee for such a development currently stands at $68,000.
The city began charging impact fees in September 2010 to help pay for police services and construction of the new Lebanon Middle School, which was completed in 2012 at a cost of $23.6 million.
In 2013, an additional fee was added to help pay for work on the Mascoma River Greenway, and a fee for fire department vehicles and infrastructure was created in 2016.
Each time the fees increased, members of Lebanon’s business community expressed concern that development would be slowed or discouraged.
Paul Boucher, former president and CEO of the Lebanon chamber, called the recreation fee a “deal killer” for new projects in 2013.
“We’re looking for economic vitality,” he told the Valley News at the time. “We’re inviting people to come and participate in the business community, and it’s just another hindrance for them to come in.”
The city has so far collected more than $500,000 from the fees, with some of the largest contributions paid as part of the Rock Ridge and Prospect Hills residential developments, according to information provided by Lebanon Finance Director Len Jarvi.
The city has so far given about $182,600 of that money to the school district, with a little more than $100,000 going to recreation projects and $120,500 to police operations.
River Park, the 840,000-square-foot mixed-use development proposed for West Lebanon, is exempt from impact fees because plans were submitted before the city adopted impact fees, Brooks said. The same is true for Iron Horse Park, a 92-acre development seeking to build offices, restaurants, industrial space and a big-box store in West Lebanon.
However, both could be assessed the fees for any building permits filed five years after the developments file a formal plat, which is a map drawn to scale that provides planners with a legal description of the project, Brooks said. For River Park, the plat was filed on Jan. 2, he said.
While the fees are projected to decrease this year, planners predict that developers might not be able to rely on that trend continuing.
During a June 25 Planning Board meeting, some members predicted additional costs to police services, as law enforcement struggled with the state’s opioid epidemic.
Completing the Greenway also could become a costly endeavor, as the city attempts to determine whether to renovate a rail tunnel underneath the Lebanon Mall that would connect the trail with the downtown area.
The Lebanon Planning Board will hold a public hearing on the proposed fees at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 13, at City Hall.
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.