[Adopted 3-25-2003 by Ord. No. 2003-03-25]
This article authorizes the establishment of
an impact fee on land development in Portsmouth for providing new
and/or expanded public facilities and infrastructure, including schools
(and related facilities), within Portsmouth which are necessitated
by such new development.
A.
In accordance with R.I.G.L. Title 45, Chapter 45-22.4,
the Town Council finds that an equitable program is needed for the
planning and financing of public facilities to serve new growth and
development in the Town of Portsmouth in order to protect the public
health, safety and general welfare of the citizens of this Town.
B.
It is therefore the public policy of the Town and
in the public interest to assess, impose, levy and collect fees, defined
herein as "impact fees," for certain new development within the Town's
jurisdictional limits.
C.
It is the intent of the Town Council by enactment
of this article to:
(1)
Ensure that adequate public facilities are available
to serve new growth and development;
(2)
Ensure that new growth and development does not place
an undue financial burden upon existing taxpayers;
(3)
Promote orderly growth and development by establishing
uniform standards to require that those who benefit from new growth
and development pay a proportionate fair share of the cost of new
and/or upgraded public facilities needed to serve that new growth
and development.
D.
The Town is required by state statute to provide public
educational opportunities for all Portsmouth school-age pupils and
school site planning for new or expanded schools within the Town in
order to ensure that plans for the construction and opening of public
educational facilities are coordinated in time and place with plans
for residential development and other necessary services.
E.
The Town of Portsmouth must expand its educational
facilities in order to maintain current levels of service if new development
is to be accommodated without decreasing current levels of service.
This must be done in order to promote and protect the public health,
safety, and welfare of current and future citizens.
F.
The State of Rhode Island, through the enactment of
the Rhode Island Comprehensive Planning and Land Use Regulation Act
(R.I.G.L. § 45-22.2-1 et seq.) and the Zoning Enabling Act
of 1991 (R.I.G.L. § 45-24-27 et seq.), has sought to encourage
Portsmouth to enact innovative development regulations and techniques.
Title 45, Chapter 45-22.4, enables the Town Council to adopt impact
fee ordinances, specifically R.I.G.L. § 45-22.4-8 thereof.[1]
G.
The imposition of impact fees is one of the preferred
methods of ensuring that development bears a proportionate share of
the cost of capital facilities necessary to accommodate such development.
This must be done in order to promote and protect the public health,
safety, and welfare.
H.
Development of new housing units will place additional
students in the public schools of Portsmouth, necessitating the acquisition
of school sites, the expansion of existing educational facilities,
and the construction of new educational facilities.
I.
The fees established by this article are derived from,
based upon, and do not exceed the costs of providing for such educational
facilities necessitated by new land developments for which the fees
are levied. Such costs are established by the latest available costs.
J.
The report entitled "Town of Portsmouth, Rhode Island,
Phase II Growth Management — Needs Assessment for Impact Fee
Schedule," dated October 28, 2002, and amended March 25, 2003, sets
forth a reasonable methodology and analysis for the determination
of the impact of new development on the need for and costs of additional
school sites and educational facilities in Portsmouth or the school
district.
A.
The fees established by this article are consistent
with and are intended to assist in the implementation of the Portsmouth
Comprehensive Plan.
B.
The purpose of this article is to regulate the use
and development of land so as to assure that new development bears
a proportionate share of the cost of capital expenditures necessary
to provide public educational sites and facilities, as mandated by
the state.
As used in this article, the following words
have the meanings stated in this section:
Expenditures for the acquisition of fixed assets or additions
to fixed assets and expenditures for site acquisition, construction,
design, site development, necessary off-site improvements, and capital
equipment pertaining to such facilities.
That component of the Town's budget or the regional school
district's master plan that sets out the need for public facility
capital improvements for educational facilities, the costs of the
improvements, and proposed funding sources. A capital improvement
program must cover at least a five-year period and should be reviewed
at least every five years.
Improvements with a useful life of 10 years or more, which
increases or improves the service capacity of a public facility.
A person or legal entity undertaking development, including
any one person commencing a subdivision or land development project
which may reasonably be expected to place students in the public schools,
place additional burdens on the Town's educational facilities and
which requires the issuance of a building permit for one or more residential
buildings.
The charge imposed upon new development by the Town of Portsmouth
to fund all or a portion of the public facility's capital improvements
affected by the new development from which it is collected.
The demographic and/or educational impact documentation prepared
by a fee payer to allow the determination of the impact fee other
than by the method established by this article.
That portion of the cost of system improvements which reasonably
relates to the service demands and needs of the project.
Roads, streets, and bridges, including rights-of-way,
traffic signals, landscaping, and local components of state and federal
highways;
Stormwater collection, retention, detention,
treatment, and disposal facilities, flood-control facilities, bank
and shore projections, and enhancement improvements;
Parks, open space areas, and recreation facilities;
Police, emergency medical, rescue, and fire-protection
facilities;
Public schools, including those capital projects
undertaken by the Town or regional school district to accommodate
existing and future Portsmouth school-age pupils. Such facilities
may be located within Portsmouth or within any regional area; and
Other public facilities consistent with a community's
capital improvement program.
Any construction or installation of new residential buildings
or structures that will result in additional students in the public
schools.
A.
Any person applying after the effective date of this
article for a residential building permit which includes a new dwelling
unit, conversion of a nonresidential use to residential use, or addition
of bedrooms to an existing housing unit is hereby required to pay
a public facilities impact fee in the manner and amount set forth
in this article.
B.
The requirement of funds for provision of school facilities
shall be based upon needs as established by the capital improvement
program or regional master plan for educational facilities and shall
be consistent with the policies stated therein. The Building Official
is charged with the administration of this article. The fee amount
shall be based upon the following: A fee schedule for educational
facilities, per residential dwelling unit, shall be established by
the Town Council annually for the fiscal year.
C.
The fee payer is required to pay the fee as established
annually by the Town Council. If a fee payer disputes the impact fee
determined as described herein, then the fee payer may appeal the
decision of the Building Official to the Zoning Board of Review in
accordance with Article 14 of the Zoning Ordinance[1] and may submit an independent fee calculation study for
the land development activity for which a building permit is sought.
The student generation and/or educational impact documentation submitted
shall show the basis upon which the independent fee calculation was
made.
A.
The impact fee for all educational facilities shall
be based on the following formula, as described in "Town of Portsmouth,
Rhode Island, Phase II Growth Management — Needs Assessment
for Impact Fee Schedule," dated October 28, 2002, as amended March
25, 2003, and shall not exceed 75% of the calculated amount established
by the formula:
(1)
The impact fee shall be a sliding scale per number
of bedrooms. The basic per-bedroom fee is calculated by multiplying
the estimated capital cost per student of new or expanded educational
facilities, net of state aid, times the average school enrollment
per bedroom in Portsmouth.
(2)
The above calculations shall omit the first bedroom
in each unit. The impact fee imposed on individual buildings shall
be the number of bedrooms, up to four total bedrooms, multiplied by
75% of the result of this formula.
B.
The number of bedrooms applied to the above formula shall be the number of bedrooms in the septic system design approved by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management. The Building Inspector may revise such number for the purposes of § 170-24E of this article only.
C.
The impact fee shall be recalculated on March 1 of
each year, based on updated figures, as available, and shall take
effect on July 1 of each year.
The fee payer shall be assessed the educational
facilities impact fee required by this article upon application for
a building permit to the Building Official, which shall be collected
in full prior to the issuance of a certificate of occupancy.
A.
There is hereby established a separate Capital Facilities
Impact Fee Trust Fund to be administered by the Town Treasurer. All
funds collected shall be properly identified and promptly deposited
in a special proprietary fund, which shall be invested in government-insured
or government-backed instruments only, with all interest accruing
to the trust fund and used solely for the purposes specified in this
article.
B.
Within eight years of the date of collection, impact
fees shall be expended or encumbered for the construction of public
facilities capital improvements of reasonable benefit to the development
paying the fees and that are consistent with the capital improvement
program. The construction, expansion or renovation of new school facilities
anywhere in the Town or in any regional school district shall be deemed
to be such reasonable benefit.
C.
Where the expenditure or encumbrance of fees is not
feasible within eight years, the Town may retain impact fees for a
longer period of time if there are compelling reasons for the longer
period. In no case shall impact fees be retained longer than 12 years.
A.
Funds collected from capital facilities impact fees
and deposited in the Capital Facilities Impact Fee Trust Fund by the
Town Treasurer are for the purpose of constructing educational facilities
for the Town of Portsmouth. Such funds shall be spent solely to acquire,
construct, expand, and equip the educational sites and educational
capital facilities necessitated by new development.
Pursuant to Section 12 of the Zoning Ordinance,[1] any application for a building permit that has been submitted
and has been deemed complete prior to the adoption of this article
shall have vested rights to proceed with the application and receive
a building permit or certificate of occupancy without requiring the
payment of an impact fee.
A.
Any funds not expended or encumbered by the end of the calendar quarter immediately following eight years, or 12 years if § 170-20C of this article applies, from the date the capital facilities impact fee was paid shall be refunded to the current owner of record for the assessor's plat and lot for which the fee was paid. The refund shall include interest on the original fee amount, equal only to the actual interest that the Town Treasurer may have accrued through an investment account or similar interest-bearing account.
B.
The Town shall notify the said current owner of record by certified letter, return receipt requested, that a refund of impact fees are due for the reasons provided in Subsection A. Said current owner of record may respond and submit an application for a refund to the Building Official within one year from the date of receipt of the Town's notice. Failure to respond within the specified time period shall indicate a waiver for such refund.
C.
If the Town Council were to act to terminate any or
all impact fee requirements, all unexpended or unencumbered funds
shall be refunded as provided above. Upon the finding that any or
all fee requirements are to be terminated, the Town shall place a
notice of termination and availability of refunds in a newspaper of
general circulation within the Town of Portsmouth at least two times.
All funds available for refund shall be retained for a period of one
year. At the end of one year, any remaining funds may be transferred
to the general fund and used for any public purpose. The Town is released
from this notice requirement if there are no unexpended or unencumbered
balances within a fund or funds being terminated.
The following shall be exempted from payment
of the impact fee. Any claim of exemption must be made no later than
the time of application for a building permit. Any claim not so made
shall be deemed waived.
A.
Impact fees shall not be imposed for remodeling, rehabilitation,
or other improvements to an existing structure where the use is not
changed.
B.
Impact fees shall not be imposed for the construction
of accessory buildings or structures that will not add a dwelling
unit.
C.
Impact fees shall not be imposed for rebuilding a
damaged structure, including the replacement of a destroyed or partially
destroyed building or structure with a new building or structure of
the same size and use.
D.
Impact fees shall not be imposed on nonresidential
buildings and structures.
E.
Zero- and one-bedroom housing units.
F.
One new housing unit on any vacant lot of record in
existence as of December 31, 2002, per the Tax Assessor's certified
tax roll of that date and in a residential zone per the Zoning Ordinance[1] in effect as of that date shall be exempt. Lots that have
been subject to administrative subdivision that enlarged the lot (other
than merging two or more lots) after the effective date of this article
shall not be exempt under this provision.
H.
Elderly housing. Dwellings which would contribute
to meeting the year-round housing needs of elderly and disabled citizens
through enforceable restrictions limiting occupancy to households
whose members are 62 years of age or older.
I.
Retired adult communities. Planned developments for
retired citizens, with amenities, established through publicly enforceable
restrictions limiting occupancy to residents whose members are 55
years of age or older.
J.
Multifamily dwellings. Multifamily dwellings having
zero-bedroom (studio) or one-bedroom units and which do not exceed
a total of 800 square feet of floor area per dwelling unit.
L.
Community residence. Any community residence as defined
by R.I.G.L. § 45-24-31.
M.
Hog Island. Any buildings on Hog Island are exempt
from this article.
