This article is adopted pursuant to New Hampshire
RSA 674:17, 674:21, 674:35, 674:36, 674:43, and 674:44.
This article is intended to:
A.
Implement and be consistent with the City of Nashua's
Master Plan and capital improvement program and zoning, site plan
and subdivision regulations;
B.
Allocate a fair and equitable share of the cost of
certain new public facilities for education to new development;
C.
Require new development to contribute some of its
proportionate share of funds spent or to be spent by the City to accommodate
the new development's impact on certain public facilities for education
having a rational nexus to the new development; and
The City of Nashua finds, determines and declares
that:
A.
The City of Nashua is committed to the provision of
public educational facilities and services at levels necessary to
support continued residential and nonresidential growth and development,
including low- and moderate-income housing.
B.
Such facilities and services have been and will, in
appropriate cases, be provided by the City utilizing funds consistent
with the capital improvements program and other plans and programs
adopted by the City.
C.
Recent and anticipated growth rates would necessitate
an excessive expenditure of public funds in order to maintain adequate
facility standards and to promote and protect the public health, safety
and welfare.
D.
Each of the types of new development described in
this Public Schools Capital Facilities Impact Fee Ordinance will create
a need for the construction, equipping, or expansion of public capital
facilities for education.
E.
The imposition of impact fees is one of the methods
of ensuring that public expenditures are not excessive, and that new
development bears a proportionate share of the cost of public capital
facilities necessary to accommodate such development.
F.
The fees set forth in the Public Schools Capital Facilities
Impact Fee Table are derived from, and do not exceed the cost of:
(1)
Providing additional public capital facilities for
education necessitated by or benefiting the new development for which
the fees are levied; or
(2)
Compensating the City of Nashua for expenditures made
for existing public facilities for education that were constructed
in anticipation of new growth and development.
G.
This article sets forth and is based upon a reasonable
methodology and analysis for the determination of the impact of new
development on the need for and costs of public capital educational
facilities in the City of Nashua and provides a rational nexus between
new development and the assessment of fees pursuant to this article.
The AER report was considered in developing this article.
This article shall be uniformly applicable to
all new development that occurs within the corporate boundaries of
the City of Nashua. This article does not apply to capital infrastructure
other than schools and it is not intended to eliminate, reduce or
limit impact or other development fees that may be collected or collectible
by the City, the collection of which is hereby continued to be authorized,
on account of the need for other infrastructure occasioned by development,
including, without limitation, those roads, sewers, street lighting,
sidewalks, police and fire services, City government and public works
services, or any other thing.
For purposes of this article, the following
special definitions shall apply:
The report entitled "Analysis of Development Impact Fees
in Nashua," October 1994, prepared by Applied Economics Research,
Inc.
A residential building containing not more than one dwelling
on a single lot.
A residential use consisting of two or more single-family
detached dwellings on a single lot.
The person (as defined in RSA 424:1, V) who has applied for
the issuance of a building permit.
Those areas (in square feet) of a dwelling suitable for year-round
occupancy, not including unfinished basements, decks, garages, three-season
porches, or unfinished attics.
See the definition outlined in RSA 673:31.
New development does not include:
The reconstruction of a structure that has been
destroyed by fire or natural disaster, and natural deterioration,
provided that there is no change in the size, density, or use of the
structure;
The replacement of a manufactured home; or
The construction of an accessory structure to
a dwelling that would not increase the demand for public capital educational
facilities by the owner or user of the dwelling.
The addition/renovation(s) to an existing dwelling(s).
All assets, facilities, and equipment relating to public
education services that are described in RSA 674:21, V.
At least two dwellings that share a common wall in which
each dwelling has living space on the ground floor and a separate,
ground-floor entrance.
A.
The amount of the impact fee shall be determined by
multiplying the livable area by the appropriate dwelling fee appearing
in the table below.
|
Table 77-1
Impact Fee Table
| ||
|
Residential
(per dwelling)
|
School Facilities
(per square feet)
|
Maximum Fee Possible
|
|
Detached single family
|
$1.00
|
$3,600
|
|
Manufactured housing
|
$0.50
|
$1,800
|
|
Attached townhouse duplex dwellings detached
single family
Condo (condominium or apartment)
|
$0.50
|
$1,100
|
|
Multifamily dwelling (garden-style or multistory
condominium or apartment)
|
$0.50
|
$500
|
|
All other
|
$0.50
|
$500
|
B.
Section 190-15, Permitted uses, shall be used by the Administrative Officer to determine which fee category applies to development. If the type of proposed new development is not specified, the Administrative Officer shall establish applicable impact fees by using the most nearly comparable type of land use listed in § 190-15. The decision of the Administrative Officer may be appealed to the Planning Board.
C.
In the case of a change of a nonresidential use to a residential use, the impact fee shall be assessed per Subsection A.
D.
In the case of a change from one type of residential
use to another type of residential use, the impact fee shall be the
difference (if positive) between the calculation of the impact fee
for the existing use and the calculation of the impact fee for the
new use.
A.
The feepayer shall pay the impact fee required by
this article to the City of Nashua prior to the issuance of a certificate
of occupancy.
B.
All unpaid fees shall constitute a lien on the affected
property and an obligation of the property owner, and may be collected
in the same manner as uncollected property taxes. The lien shall run
with the land.
All impact fees collected shall be held by the City Treasurer and shall be properly identified by and promptly transferred for deposit in the appropriate public capital educational facilities impact fee accounts as determined in § 190-80 of this article and used solely for the purposes specified in this article. Impact fee accounts shall be special revenue fund accounts, and under no circumstances will impact fee revenues accrue to the general fund.
A.
There are hereby established one separate public capital
educational facilities impact fee account: the School Facilities Account.
This shall be a nonlapsing, interest-bearing account that is not commingled
with other City funds.
B.
At the end of each fiscal year, the City Treasurer
shall make a report giving a particular account of all impact fee
transactions during the year. Said report may be a portion of the
City's annual report or audit.
D.
The City Treasurer shall have custody of all accounts
and shall pay out the same only upon written request of the Mayor
and Board of Aldermen.
A.
Funds withdrawn from any of the public capital educational facilities impact fee accounts shall be used solely for the purpose of acquiring, constructing, equipping, or making improvements to the particular public capital educational facilities for which the account is designated or for making refunds as provided in § 190-82 of this article.
B.
In the event that bonds or similar debt instruments
have been issued for public capital educational facilities that were
constructed in anticipation of current growth, or are issued for advance
provision of public capital facilities for which impact fees may be
expended, impact fees may be used to pay debt service on such bonds
or similar debt instruments to the extent that the facilities provided
are of the type for which the impact fees were collected.
C.
The periodic updates of the City's capital improvement program shall contain a methodology for assigning funds, including any accrued interest, from the public capital educational facilities impact fee accounts to specified public capital educational facilities improvement projects and related expenses. Monies, including any accrued interest, not assigned in any fiscal period, shall be retained in the same public capital educational facilities impact fee accounts until next fiscal period except as provided in § 190-82 of this article.
A.
The current owner of record of property for which
an impact fee has been paid shall be entitled to a refund of that
fee, plus accrued interest where:
(1)
The building permit has expired without the commencement
of construction, the voiding of a building permit, or the project
for which the building permit has been issued has been altered, resulting
in a decrease in the amount of the impact fee due.
(2)
The impact fee has not been expended or encumbered
for public capital facilities for which it was collected within the
period of six years from the payment of the impact fee.
B.
In the event of transfer of title to land from an
owner who has paid an impact fee to a new owner, the parties to said
conveyance shall be responsible for allocating any potential refund
between themselves, as the City shall only be responsible for paying
over any statutorily required refund to the then current property
owner.
The Board of Aldermen may abate the impact fee
in whole or in part, if the feepayer elects to construct, at their
expense, the public capital facility listed in the capital improvements
program. If the feepayer elects to make such an improvement, the feepayer
must enter into an agreement with the City prior to the issuance of
a building permit. In no event shall the City provide a credit in
an amount greater than the applicable impact fee.
Payment of impact fees does not restrict the
City to require a feepayer to pay for or provide other municipal public
improvements, fees, assessments or charges that are allowed by law
in accommodating new development such as road improvements, sewer
fees and charges, sidewalks, government service fees, easements, of
other reasonable requirements.
An applicant may petition the Board of Aldermen
for a full or partial waiver of the fee imposed by this article if
the proposed new development consists of low- or moderate-income housing
or elderly housing which can be reasonably expected not to require
additional educational facilities. For purposes of this section, "low-income
housing" is housing considered low-income housing by federal legislation
and regulations governing eligibility for housing assistance. The
Planning Board and Administrative Officer shall evaluate the request
and forward written findings and recommendations to the Mayor and
Board of Aldermen for consideration. The amount of the impact fee
waived shall be proportional to the amount of the new development
which is dedicated to low-income or elderly housing.
Nothing in this article shall be construed so
as to limit the existing authority of the Planning Board to provide
against development which is scattered or premature, requires an excessive
expenditure of public funds for capital facilities or improvements
that are not public capital facilities, or otherwise violates the
City of Nashua's site plan review regulations, subdivision regulations,
or Zoning Ordinance.
Any application or administration decision of
this article shall be appealed to the Planning Board.
