This chapter shall be known as the "Adams Township Impact Fee Ordinance" and shall be codified in the Municipal Code of Ordinances as Chapter
117, Impact Fees.
The purpose of this chapter is to establish the Adams 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 Adams 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 recitals set forth at the beginning of this chapter are incorporated
herein as findings of the Board of Supervisors as if fully set forth.
B. The Township is committed to the provision of a transportation system
at service levels necessary to support residential and nonresidential
growth and development.
C. Transportation service levels will be provided by the Township utilizing
funds allocated via the capital budget, capital improvements programs,
formal and informal partnerships with the Pennsylvania Department
of Transportation ("PennDOT") and impact fees.
D. The aggregation of development in the defined Western and Eastern
Transportation Service Areas intensifies the demand for transportation
improvements designed to accommodate traffic volumes at a "D" level
of service 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.
E. The development potential of properties in the defined transportation
service areas is reflected in the RSA report and the Township's
Comprehensive Plan and is implemented via the Subdivision and Land
Development Ordinance and the Zoning Ordinance.
F. 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.
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 Western and
Eastern 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 Board of Supervisors,
is in the best interest of the Township and its residents.
As used in this chapter, the words shall have the meaning set
forth in Sections 107 and 502-A of the MPC unless the context clearly indicates to the contrary.
The following words and terms, not defined in the MPC or defined differently
than in the MPC, shall have the following meaning unless the context
clearly indicates to the contrary:
BUILDING PERMIT (ZONING/BUILDING)
A document attesting that a proposal for construction, repair,
alteration, or addition to a structure has been reviewed and approved
in accordance with the requirements of this chapter and the current
Building Code.
CODE ENFORCEMENT OFFICER
A person retained by and responsible to the Board of Supervisors
to enforce the regulations of this chapter, with power to issue zoning
permits, to issue building and occupancy permits, to halt illegal
construction, and to interpret literally the meaning of the various
sections of this chapter, subject to appeal before the Zoning Hearing
Board.
COMPREHENSIVE PLAN
The document based on an analysis of past trends and current
conditions in the Township, projecting growth and change in population,
economic conditions and land use, and setting forth policies, goals,
and objectives to guide future growth and development in the community.
DEVELOPER
Any landowner, agent of such landowner, or tenant with the
permission of such landowner, who makes or causes to be made a subdivision
of land or a land development.
IMPACT FEE
A charge or fee imposed by a municipality, to be paid at
building permit issuance, against new development in order to generate
revenue for funding the costs of transportation capital improvements
necessitated by and attributable to new development.
MUNICIPAL TRAFFIC ENGINEER
Shall mean, for the purpose of the Roadway Sufficiency Analysis
and the Transportation Capital Improvement Program, Trans Associates,
Inc. and thereafter shall mean any Pennsylvania-licensed engineer
with experience in traffic and roadway engineering as may be appointed
from time to time by the Board of Supervisors.
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 Township. New development also includes any change in use that
increases peak hour trips generated by such change in use, whether
or not physical changes to the site or structures on the site are
required. Development pursuant to MPC Article VII, Planned Residential
Development (PRD), and MPC Article VII-A, Traditional Neighborhood
Development (TND), is included in new development.
OCCUPANCY PERMIT
A certificate issued by the Zoning Officer attesting to the
fact that the proposed use or reuse of premises is in accordance with
the requirements of this chapter or with a previously issued zoning
or building permit and may be legally occupied.
P.M. PEAK HOUR
The relevant peak hour period for the calculation of impact
fees. Trips generated in the p.m. peak hour shall be used to determine
the impact fee.
TRANSPORTATION CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS PLAN
The plan adopted by the Board of Supervisors of Adams Township
prior to the enactment of this Transportation Capital Improvements
Ordinance for the purpose of identifying and planning for transportation
capital improvements.
TRANSPORTATION SERVICE AREA
A geographically defined area of the Township which, pursuant
to the Zoning Ordinance and applicable district regulations, has an
aggregation of sites with development potential creating the need
for transportation improvements for such area to be funded by impact
fees.
TRIP GENERATION RATES
Those rates of traffic for the p.m. peak hour of adjacent
street traffic as determined in Trip Generation, 7th Edition, 2003,
Vols. 1 to 3, the Institute of Transportation Engineers, with such
amendments or from such future editions thereof, as may be adopted
by the Supervisors by resolution.
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, plus both
A. A ten-percent contingency; and
B. The cost of the Municipal Traffic Engineer's preparation of
the Roadway Sufficiency Analysis within a 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, 7th Edition, 2003,
Vols. 1 to 3, the Institute of Transportation Engineers, with such
amendments or from such future editions thereof, as may be adopted
by the Supervisors by resolution.
No building permit or occupancy permit subject to this chapter
shall be issued for a development in the Eastern or Western Transportation
Service Area unless the applicant has paid the impact fee imposed
by and calculated pursuant to this chapter.
The Township has defined two transporation service areas as
shown on the Transporation Service Area Map (see Attachment A) in accordance with the provisions of the MPC.
Adams 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 of its collected
impact fees for specific transportation projects which are not included
in the Transportation Capital Improvements Plan;
B. The alternative transportation project, whether highway or multimodal,
has as its purpose the reduction of traffic congestion or the removal
of vehicle trips from the roadway network;
C. The Township amends it 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 applicant prior
to the issuance of a building permit, or occupancy permit if no physical
improvements are required by the Township for 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. Words and phrases are to be interpreted as defined by
this chapter, then:
(1) Words and phrases that are not defined by this chapter are to be
interpreted as defined in Sections 107 and 502-A of the Pennsylvania
Municipalities Planning Code (MPC), 53 P.S. §§ 10107
and 10502-A, as amended; then
(2) 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 the Township's
Zoning or Subdivision and Land Development Ordinances; then
(3) Words and phrases that are not defined in this chapter, or Sections
107 and 502-A of the MPC, or in the Township's Zoning or 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 chapter 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 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.