[HISTORY: Adopted by the Town Council of
the Town of Millsboro 10-3-2005. Amendments noted where applicable.]
This chapter shall apply not only to all properties
located within the municipal limits of the Town but also as a condition
precedent to all properties located outside the Town's limits seeking
connection to any of the Town's public utilities.
As used in this chapter, the following terms
shall have the meanings indicated:
An estimate of the average daily water consumption by a single-family
dwelling unit. For all development within the Town of Millsboro, one
EDU shall equal 240 gallons per day. (NOTE: See EDU list incorporated
by reference into this chapter.)
A.
All property owners shall pay impact fees in such
amounts and at such times as provided herein. Such impact fees shall
represent that property owner's proportionate share of the Town's
reasonably anticipated capital costs of supplying municipal and/or
public services to the owner's property, either by using up existing
capacity (such impact fees thus being collected to replace that used-up
capacity in the future) or by presently expanding existing capacity
in order to provide such services to the owner's property.
B.
For purposes hereof, "municipal and/or public services"
includes but is not limited to all capital expenditures and improvements
by the Town (other than those directly recovered from the property
owner as reimbursement for extension of Town facilities, front foot
assessments, installation charges, connection fees or the like), reasonably
necessary or appropriate to provide water, sanitary sewer, storm sewer
and drainage, streetlighting and signage, traffic control devices,
streets, curbs, sidewalks, gutters, and police, fire, code enforcement,
and emergency protection and other municipal services to the residents
and properties of the Town.
Projects subject to impact fees are:
A.
Any improvement which extends a building or structure
beyond its existing footprint or which results in a net increase in
the total floor area of an existing building by the addition of floors,
porches, or decks, or the replacement of any building or structure
which is not substantially the same size, scale, footprint, appearance,
and configuration as the previously existing building or structure.
The impact of any such improvements and/or replacements shall subject
the complete project to the impact fees provided for under this chapter.
B.
Any improvement and/or replacement which causes a
significant increase in municipal and/or public services by either
using up existing capacity or by causing the need to expand existing
capacity, as reasonably determined by the Town Council and supported
by analysis. The additional impact upon the municipal and/or public
services only shall be subject to the impact fees provided for under
this chapter.
A.
Properties located within the Town. Payment of impact
fees shall be a condition precedent to obtaining a building permit.
Where adequate utilities to serve the properties in a subdivision
are already in place, the Town Council may, in the exercise of its
reasonable discretion, allow impact fees to be paid any time prior
to the issuance of a building permit; however, when adequate utilities
are not in place to serve properties within a subdivision or land
development project, impact fees shall be due and payable as a condition
of final subdivision or land development approval.
B.
Properties located outside the Town. Payment of impact
fees shall be a condition precedent to the connection of any property
located outside the Town to the Town's water and wastewater treatment
and distribution systems.
C.
Municipal facilities/building fund impact fee.
(1)
The building fund impact fee is designed to accrue
a building fund for construction of structures for the anticipated
expansion of Town administrative, police and public works services.
(2)
Amount of impact fee per approved EDU: please see
the Fee Schedule annually established and, approved by the Town Council
as part of the budget review and approval process.
[Amended 7-5-2022]
D.
Transportation/
stormwater impact fee.
[Added 7-5-2022[1]]
(1)
The
transportation/stormwater impact fee is designed to accrue a fund
for the construction, acquisition and maintenance of transportation
and stormwater facilities, improvements and systems in Town.
(2)
Amount
of impact fee per approved EDU: please see the Fee Schedule annually
established and approved by the Town Council as part of the budget
review and approval process.
E.
Police
protection impact fee.
[Added 7-5-2022]
(1)
The
police protection impact fee is designed to accrue a police fund for
the construction, acquisition and maintenance of facilities and capital
assets for the use by the Town's Police Department.
(2)
An
impact fee of 0.25% of the construction value of the building permit
of new residential dwellings (including single-family detached homes,
attached homes, townhouses, apartment units and mobile homes) and
new nonresidential structures of all types (including tenant fit-outs
of existing structures) shall be assessed at the time the building
permit is issued; provided that the impact fee for any single building
permit shall not exceed $2,500.
F.
Annexation impact fees.
(1)
The annexation impact fee is designed to pay for the
equitable portion of the planning, design, and initial capital improvement
costs to provide municipal and/or public services to the new parcel(s)
regardless of use or density. This fee is intended to offset some
of the risk to the Town for utility expansion and capital improvements
completed in anticipation of future growth to said properties. The
annexation impact fee, in combination with the water, wastewater and
building fund impact fees, is the equitable share for such annexed
properties in that such amount creates a balance that distributes
the financial burdens previously borne and yet to be borne by those
properties in comparison with the other properties within the Town
as a whole. Such funds may be deposited into the respective water
capital reserve account or sewer capital reserve account and, if so
deposited, may only be expended for the purpose of paying the principal
of and interest on any bonds issued for the construction, installation,
repair, maintenance or replacement of waterlines and/or sewage treatment
system, including the sewage treatment plant and pumping stations,
the making of emergency repairs, major renovations, or extensions
or expansion, or any combination thereof, to the water distribution
system and/or sewer connection or treatment system, including repairs
and renovations to the wells and/or sewer treatment plant and pumping
stations, as determined by the Town Council. The building fund component
may he added to the reserve account with the building fund impact
fee for the same purposes as established for said impact fee.
[Amended 11-6-2006; 8-6-2007; 7-5-2022; 9-6-2022]
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(2)
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Amount of impact fee:
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Includes water, wastewater, building fund, and
transportation/stormwater, components. For the amount of each component
fee, please see the Fee Schedule annually established and approved
by the Town Council as part of the budget review and approval process.
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Total impact fee:
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Please see the Fee Schedule annually established
and approved by the Town Council as part of the budget review and
approval process.
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(3)
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Annexation impact fee is due and payable upon
annexation.
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(4)
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Notwithstanding anything contained in this Subsection F to the contrary, upon annexation of property used exclusively as an existing cemetery, an annexation impact fee calculated in accordance with Subsection F(2) hereof shall not be due and payable. Rather, an annexation impact fee in the amount of $2,500, which is the same amount as the maximum "police protection impact fee" required for new construction, shall be due and payable upon annexation of property used exclusively as an existing cemetery. Such a reduced annexation impact fee amount, based on the police protection impact fee, is reflective of the municipal service that will immediately benefit an existing cemetery. If, following annexation, a property exclusively used as an existing cemetery at the time of annexation requires public works or other services of the Town or if any portion thereof is converted to a different use, additional impact fees shall be due and payable in accordance with this Chapter 127.
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G.
Fire protection. An impact fee of 0.25% of the construction
value of the building permit of new residential dwellings (including
single-family detached homes, attached homes, townhouses, apartment
units and mobile homes) and new nonresidential structures of all types
(including tenant fit-outs of existing structures) shall be assessed
at the time the building permit is issued; provided that the impact
fee for any single building permit shall not exceed $2,500. The proceeds
of the impact fee shall be transferred by the Town to the Millsboro
Volunteer Fire Company at the end of each quarter of each year to
be used for capital equipment and facilities to enhance fire protection
services to the residents and properties of the Town.
H.
Ambulance services. An impact fee of 0.25% of the
construction value of the building permit of new residential dwellings
(including single-family detached homes, attached homes, townhouses,
apartment units and mobile homes) and new nonresidential structures
of all types (including tenant fit-outs of existing structures) shall
be assessed at the time the building permit is issued, provided that
the impact fee for any single building permit shall not exceed $2,500.
The proceeds of the impact fee shall be transferred by the Town to
the Millsboro Volunteer Fire Company at the end of each quarter of
each year to be used for capital equipment and facilities to enhance
emergency medical protection services to the residents of the Town.
I.
Exemptions. Building permit applications for decks,
sheds, residential additions, pools, fences, sidewalks, moving and
demolition, signs and renovations or repairs to existing structures
are exempt from the fire protection and ambulance services impact
fees.
Anything herein to the contrary notwithstanding,
where the property involved is subject to the procedures of the Town's
subdivision/land development regulations, the Town Council may, in
its absolute discretion, and pursuant to a written agreement signed
by the developer (with appropriate security), allow any developer
to make payment of some or all amounts of any impact fees assessed
as hereinabove provided by means of in-kind contributions (e.g., capital
improvements, land) in lieu of cash payments, provided that such in-kind
contributions shall not be credited towards any other dedications
required pursuant to the Town's regulations.
[Amended 3-6-2017]
Subject to the following limitation for new construction, the Town reserves the right to increase or decrease the amount of the impact fee assessed for each newly constructed unit to reflect one or more intervening increases or decreases in impact fees made pursuant to § 127-9 hereafter, until a certificate of occupancy has been issued for that newly constructed unit or addition. Whenever a building permit has been lawfully issued for the construction of any unit, then, unless and until that building permit shall have expired, been revoked, or been superseded by the issuance of a certificate of occupancy, the amount of the impact fee for that unit shall remain fixed at the amount in effect as of the date that the building permit for that unit was issued.
[Amended 3-6-2017]
Annually, beginning January 1, 2006, the amount of the impact
fees set out above shall automatically be increased to reflect inflation
based upon changes in the consumer price index as established by the
U.S. Department of Labor for the Philadelphia-Wilmington-Atlantic
City (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland) region for the
preceding 12 months; provided, however, that the Town Council may
act, by resolution adopted on or before December 31 of each year,
to waive the increase for the following year and/or to decrease the
amount of any category of impact fees that it may deem to be appropriate.
The distribution of impact fees among the different
accounts shall be set by resolution of Town Council. This distribution
can be changed by resolution of Town Council for newly collected fees.
