[Adopted 4-19-2000 by Ord. No. 294]
The Board of Supervisors of West Deer Township
may, in its sole discretion, waive the imposition of any permit fees
less engineering fees or other out-of-pocket costs of the Township
which would otherwise be collected by the Township from any not-for-profit
organization which is charging less than market value for its provision
of goods or services to Township residents.
[Adopted 12-4-2010 by Ord. No. 385]
This article shall be known as the "West Deer/Indiana Township
Impact Fee Program."
The purpose of this article is to establish the West Deer/Indiana
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 West Deer/Indiana 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 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 Townships
are 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 Supervisors hereby find and declare that:
A. The Townships are 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 Townships utilizing
funds allocated via all available sources, including the 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:
(1) A "C" level of service for intersections and the "C" level of service
for roadway segments in West Deer Township as defined by the Transportation
Research Board of the National Academy of Science.
(2) A "D" level of service for intersections and the "D" level of service
for roadway segments in Indiana Township as defined by the Transportation
Research Board of the National Academy of Science.
D. The development potential of properties in the defined transportation
service area is reflected in the Land Use Assumptions Report adopted
in:
(1) West Deer Township by Resolution No 2009-19 on December 2, 2009,
and the Roadway Sufficiency Analysis adopted on August 18, 2010; and
(2) Indiana Township by Resolution No. 2009-15 on November 24, 2009,
and the Roadway Sufficiency Analysis adopted on September 15, 2010.
E. To the extent that new development in the transportation service
area 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 Townships, 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 and this article, applying the engineering standards set
forth in the most-current edition of Trip Generation, Institute of
Transportation Engineers, and any amendments or future editions thereof.
G. The Townships hereby find and declare that it would be in the best
interests of the residents of the Townships to impose an impact fee
upon new development in order to assist in the financing of certain
major transportation capital improvements in the defined transportation
service area, the demand for which has been quantified through the
application of land use assumptions provided by the Joint Planning
Committee appointed by the Supervisors.
As used in this article, 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 the building
code ordinances of West Deer Township and Indiana Township, including
but not limited to the following activities:
A.
Constructing or altering a man-made object having a stationary
location on land or water, constructing an addition, demolishing or
moving a man-made object having a stationary location on land or water,
making a change of occupancy, installing or altering any equipment
regulated under the building code ordinances of West Deer Township
and Indiana Township, and moving a lot line which divides a lot from
another lot or street.
DEVELOPER
Any person who has legal title of land, including an agent
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 upon building permit issuance and calculated
in accordance with the provisions of the Municipalities Planning Code.
NEW DEVELOPMENT
Any commercial, industrial, 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 peak-hour trips.
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 developer's property
or the improvements constructed on the property abutting the developer's
property necessary for ingress or egress to the developer's property
and required to be constructed by the developer pursuant to any Township
ordinance, including, but not limited to, the Township Building Code,
Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance and Zoning Ordinance.
P.M. PEAK-HOUR
The Township has identified the p.m. peak hour as the relevant
peak-hour period for the calculation of impact fees.
TRANSPORTATION CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS
Those off-site road improvements that have a life expectancy
of three or more years, not including costs for maintenance, operation
or repair.
TRANSPORTATION CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS PLAN
A plan adopted by the Supervisors 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 directed HRG to prepare a Transportation Capital
Improvements Plan dated February 26, 2010.
TRANSPORTATION SERVICE AREAS
Geographically defined areas of the Township which, pursuant
to the Zoning Ordinance 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 A1 for West Deer Township and Exhibit A2 for Indiana
Township).
TRIP GENERATION RATES
Those rates of traffic for the peak hour of adjacent street
traffic between 4:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. as determined in the most-current
edition of Trip Generation, 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
Improvements 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 the most-current edition of Trip Generation, Institute
of Transportation Engineers, and any amendments or future editions
thereof.
No building permit subject to this article shall be issued for
a development in a transportation service area unless the developer
has paid the impact fee imposed by and calculated pursuant to this
article.
The Townships have defined transportation service areas as shown
on the Transportation Service Area Maps (see Exhibit A1 and Exhibit
A2, attached hereto and incorporated herein) in accordance with the provisions of the Municipalities
Planning Code.
The Townships 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 of 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. West Deer or Indiana Township amends its Transportation Capital Improvements
Plan components required by Section 504-A(e)(1)(vi) of the Municipalities
Planning Code 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 developer prior
to the issuance of a building permit by West Deer or Indiana Township.
The words and phrases of this article 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
article;
(2) Second, words and phrases that are not defined by this article are
to be interpreted as defined in Sections 107 and 502-A of the Municipalities
Planning Code, 53 P.S. §§ 10107 and 10502-A, as amended;
(3) Third, words and phrases that are not defined in this article or
Sections 107 and 502-A of the Municipalities Planning Code are to
be interpreted as defined in the Townships' Zoning, Subdivision
and Land Development Ordinances;
(4) Fourth, words and phrases that are not defined in this article, Sections
107 and 502-A of the Municipalities Planning Code, or in the Townships'
Zoning, Subdivision and Land Development Ordinances 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 article are
not to be interpreted in a way that results in an absurd construction
of the meaning or in a way that causes one provision to contradict
another.
The provisions of this article 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.