This chapter shall be known as the "Middlesex Township Impact Fee Program."
The purpose of this chapter is to establish the Middlesex Township Impact
Fee Program, including a Transportation Capital Improvements Plan, to ensure
that the transportation system is available and adequate to support existing
volumes of traffic and traffic projected to be generated by new growth and
development. To advance this objective, the Middlesex Township Impact Fee
Program shall be based upon the imposition of an impact fee payable to the
Township at the time of building permit issuance. Additionally, the program
identifies existing deficiencies due to pass through trips and future trip
generation attributable to new development. The program will provide a continuing
generation of funds necessary for the Township to initiate and complete capital
transportation improvements as needed in support of new growth and development.
Such a program will involve participation by developers as well as local,
state and federal governments. Through the Impact Fee Program, the Township
is establishing a process whereby future traffic needs can be addressed in
a timely manner and the impact of increased traffic volumes can be minimized
to the extent possible.
The Board of Supervisors hereby finds and declares that:
A. The Township is committed to the provision of a transportation
system at service levels necessary to support residential and nonresidential
growth and development.
B. Transportation service levels will be provided by the
Township utilizing funds allocated via the capital budget, capital improvements
programs and impact fees.
C. The aggregation of development in the defined transportation
service areas intensifies the demand for transportation improvements designed
to accommodate traffic volumes at a "D" level of service for Township intersections
and a "C" level of service for Township road segments as defined by the Transportation
Research Board of the National Academy of Science, which is the minimum acceptable
level of service to accommodate such development and the intensity thereof.
D. The development potential of properties in the defined transportation service areas is reflected in the Roadway Sufficiency Analysis adopted by Resolution No. 04-32 and the Township's Comprehensive Plan and is implemented via Chapter
150, Subdivision and Land Development, and Chapter
175, Zoning.
E. To the extent that new development in the transportation
service areas places demands upon the transportation system, those demands
should be satisfied by the establishment of an Impact Fee Program that distributes
the responsibility for financing the provision of such transportation facilities
among the Township, state and federal governments, and developers.
F. The amount of the impact fee to be imposed shall be calculated
in accordance with the provisions of the Municipalities Planning Code, 53
P.S. § 10501-A et seq., as amended, and this chapter, applying the
engineering standards set forth in Trip Generation, 6th Ed. 1997 Vols. 1-3,
Institute of Transportation Engineering, and any amendments or future editions
thereof.
G. The Township hereby finds and declares that an impact
fee imposed upon new development, in order to assist in the financing of specified
major transportation capital improvements in the defined transportation service
areas, the demand for which has been quantified through the application of
land use assumptions provided by the Impact Fee Advisory Committee appointed
by the Board of Supervisors, is in the best interest of the Township and its
residents.
As used in this chapter, the following words and terms shall have the
following meanings unless another meaning is plainly intended:
BUILDING PERMIT
A permit for the activities regulated under Chapter
65, adopting the Uniform Construction Code, including the following activities:
A.
Construct or alter a man-made object having a stationary location on
land or water;
C.
Demolish or move a man-made object having a stationary location on land
or water;
D.
Make a change of occupancy;
E.
Install or alter any equipment regulated by the Uniform Construction
Code;
F.
Move a lot line which divides a lot from another lot or street.
COMPREHENSIVE PLAN
The overall policy guide for the physical man-made change to improved
or unimproved real estate of the Township of Middlesex adopted by the Board
of Supervisors as the Comprehensive Plan of the Township of Middlesex either
as a whole or in parts, consisting of documents, maps, drawings and charts
in accordance with the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code and as amended
from time to time. The Township of Middlesex Comprehensive Plan includes but
is not limited to the Middlesex Township-Richland Township Joint Comprehensive
Plan adopted December 15, 2004, by the Board of Supervisors and designs or
plans or any studies or surveys emanating therefrom.
DEVELOPER
Any person who has legal title of land, agent of the legal title
or tenant with permission of the person who has legal title of land, who makes
an application for development.
IMPACT FEE
A fee, to be paid at building permit issuance, and calculated in
accordance with the provisions of the Municipalities Planning Code, 53 P.S.
§§ 10501-A to 10507-A, as amended, and this chapter.
NEW DEVELOPMENT
Any commercial, industrial or residential or other project which
involves new construction, enlargement, reconstruction, redevelopment, relocation
or structural alteration and which is expected to generate additional vehicular
traffic within the transportation service area of the municipality. New development
also includes any change in use that increases p.m. peak-hour trips generated
by an improved development.
OFF-SITE IMPROVEMENTS
Those public capital improvements that are not on-site improvements
and that serve the needs of more than one development.
ON-SITE IMPROVEMENTS
All improvements constructed on the applicant's property or the improvements
constructed on the property abutting the applicant's property necessary for
the ingress or egress to the applicant's property and required to be constructed
by the applicant pursuant to any municipal ordinance including, but not limited
to, the municipal building code, subdivision and land development ordinance,
planned residential development regulations and zoning ordinance.
PEAK-HOUR
The Township has identified the p.m. peak-hour, between the hours
of 4:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m., as the relevant peak-hour period for the calculation
of impact fees.
TRANSPORTATION CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS PLAN
A plan adopted by the Board of Supervisors of the Township prior
to the enactment of any impact fee ordinance for the purpose of identifying
and planning for transportation capital improvements. Specifically, the Impact
Fee Advisory Committee prepared or directed to be prepared a Transportation
Capital Improvements Plan dated November 2004, prepared by Herbert, Rowland
& Grubic, Inc., adopted as Resolution No. 04-32 of the Board of Supervisors
on December 15, 2004.
TRANSPORTATION SERVICE AREAS
Geographically defined areas of the Township which, pursuant to Chapter
175, Zoning, and applicable district regulations, have an aggregation of sites with development potential creating the need for transportation improvements for such area to be funded by impact fees. (See Exhibit A.)
TRIP GENERATION RATES
Those rates of traffic for the p.m. peak-hour of adjacent street
traffic between 4:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. as determined in Trip Generation,
6th Edition 1997 Vols. 1-3, The Institute of Transportation Engineers, and
any amendments or future editions thereof.
UNIT COST PER TRIP
The dollar figure calculated by dividing the total costs of the road
improvements included in the adopted Transportation Capital Improvement Plan
within a given transportation service area attributable to and necessitated
by new development within the service area divided by the number of anticipated
p.m. peak-hour trips generated by all new development consistent with the
land use assumptions and calculated in accordance with Trip Generation, 6th
Ed. 1997 Vols. 1-3, The Institute of Transportation Engineers, and any amendments
and future editions thereto.
No building permit subject to this chapter shall be issued for a development
in a transportation service area unless the applicant has paid the impact
fee imposed by and calculated pursuant to this chapter.
The Township has defined transportation service areas as shown on the
Transportation Service Area Map (see Exhibit A, attached hereto and incorporated
herein) in accordance with the provisions of the Municipalities Planning
Code, 53 P.S. § 10101 et seq.
The Township may expend impact fees paid by an applicant on projects
not contained in the adopted Transportation Capital Improvements Plan if all
of the following criteria are met:
A. The applicant has provided written consent to use its
collected impact fees for specific transportation projects which are not included
in the Transportation Capital Improvement Plan;
B. The alternative transportation project, whether highway
or multi-modal, has as its purpose the reduction of traffic congestion or
the removal of vehicle trips from the roadway network;
C. The Township amends its Transportation Capital Improvements
Plan components required by Section 504-A(e)(1)(vi) of the Municipalities
Planning Code, 53 P.S. § 10504-A(e)(1)(vi), to provide replacement
of the collected impact fees transferred to transportation projects outside
the approved Transportation Capital Improvements Plan from sources other than
impact fees or developer contributions within three years of completion of
the alternative projects to which the transferred fees were applied.
Payment of the impact fee shall be made by the new development prior
to the issuance of a building permit by the Township to the new development
for development on the applicable site.
The words and phrases of this chapter are to be construed in accordance
with the following rules:
A. Definitions.
(1) First, words and phrases are to be interpreted as defined
by this chapter;
(2) Second, words and phrases that are not defined by this
chapter are to be interpreted as defined in Sections 107 and 502-A of the
Municipalities Planning Code (MPC), 53 P.S. §§ 10107 and 10502-A,
as amended;
(3) Third, words and phrases that are not defined in this chapter or Sections 107 and 502-A of the MPC are to be interpreted as defined in Chapter
175, Zoning, and Chapter
150, Subdivision and Land Development;
(4) Fourth, words and phrases that are not defined in this chapter, Sections 107 and 502-A of the MPC, or in Chapter
175, Zoning, or Chapter
150, Subdivision and Land Development, are to be given their common, ordinary dictionary meaning within the context of the sentence in which they are used.
B. Construction. The words, phrases and provisions of this
chapter are not to be interpreted in a way the results in an absurd construction
of the meaning, or in a way that causes one provision to contradict another.
The provisions of this chapter shall be liberally construed to effectively
carry out the purposes that are hereby found and declared to be in furtherance
of the public health, safety, welfare and convenience.
Impact fees may be imposed on new development for which an application
has been filed on or after the first publication of notice of the Township's
intent to adopt this chapter; provided, however, that such retroactivity does
not exceed 18 months after the adoption of the resolution that created the
Advisory Committee in connection herewith. In retroactive applications, the
per-trip fee may not exceed $1,000 or the actual calculated fee, whichever
is less.