Any person aggrieved by an objection to a plat
or a failure to approve a plat may appeal such objection or failure
to approve as provided in § 236.13(5), Wis. Stats., within
30 days of notification of the rejection of the plat. Where failure
to approve is based on an unsatisfied objection, the agency making
the objection shall be made a party to the action.
[Added 3-16-2006 by Ord. No. 2006-02; amended 3-5-2009 by Ord. No. 2009-03]
A. General.
[Amended 10-4-2018 by Ord. No. 2018-07]
(1) Impact fee administration. This § 385-50 is intended to
allocate financial burdens of providing public facilities fairly between
residents living in the City at the time of adoption of new land developments,
as well as to comply with § 66.0617, Wis. Stats. The Common
Council is adopting this section to provide an additional means to
recover the cost of development beyond that already existing, to finance
public facilities.
(2) Definitions. In this §
380-50, the following definitions shall be applicable:
CAPITAL COSTS
The capital costs to construct, expand or improve public
facilities, including the cost of land, and including legal, engineering
and design costs to construct, expand or improve public facilities,
except that not more than 10% of capital costs may consist of legal,
engineering and design costs unless such costs related directly to
the public improvement for which the impact fees were imposed actually
exceed 10% of the capital costs.
DEVELOPMENT
Any man-made change to improved or unimproved real property;
the use of any principal structure or land or any other activity that
requires issuance of a building permit.
IMPACT FEE
A fee to be collected at the time of issuance of a building
permit.
LAND DEVELOPMENT
The construction or modification of improvements to real
property that creates additional residential dwelling units within
the City or its service areas or that results in nonresidential uses
that create a need for new, expanded or improved public facilities
within the City or its service areas.
PUBLIC FACILITIES
Defined in § 66.0617(1)(f), Wis. Stats., and shall mean the facilities described in the documents set forth in Subsection
C below.
SERVICE AREA
A geographic area delineated by the City Council from time
to time, within which the City provides public facilities.
(3) Exemption/reduction. The Common Council may, in its sole discretion,
provide for an exemption from, or a reduction in the amount of, impact
fees on land development that provides low-cost housing as provided
for in § 66.0617(7), Wis. Stats.
(4) Credits. The Common Council may grant credits to reduce impact fees
in the circumstances described in § 66.0617(6)(d) and (e),
Wis. Stats., upon such terms and conditions as the Common Council
may determine.
B. Impact fees established.
[Amended 10-4-2018 by Ord. No. 2018-07]
(1) The following fees are impact fees established by the City pursuant
to § 66.0617, Wis. Stats.:
(a)
Public parks and recreation impact fees.
(b)
Public works impact fees.
(c)
Sanitary sewer system impact fees.
(d)
Stormwater system impact fees.
(2) Amount.
(a)
Effective March 5, 2009, the impact fees are hereby established
per single REU in the following amounts:
Impact Fee
|
Rate Per REU
|
---|
Parks and recreation impact fee
|
$326
|
Public works impact fee
|
$471
|
Sanitary sewer system impact fee
|
$761
|
Stormwater impact fee
|
$215
|
Total impact fee per REU
|
$1,773
|
(b)
For purposes of this section, "REU" means a "residential equivalent
unit"; and consists of a single-family dwelling unit. REUs shall be
determined for properties/structures that are not single-family dwelling
units in the following manner: For such property/structure, one REU
shall be assigned for each 5,000 square feet (gross) of area, or any
portion thereof.
(3) Effective January 1, 2010, and on each January 1 thereafter, impact
fees shall be adjusted to reflect increases or decreases, if any,
in the cost of living. The adjusted impact fees shall be in the amount
of the impact fees for the prior calendar year, plus an amount equal
to the percentage change in the Consumer Price Index — Urban —
Milwaukee (the "Index") occurring during the calendar year preceding
the year in question, multiplied by the impact fees in effect during
such prior year. In the event the Index is no longer published, the
Common Council shall substitute an alternative index that reasonably
recognizes cost-of-living increases and decreases.
(4) Impact fees shall be determined for the calendar year within which a building permit is issued pursuant to Subsection
G below.
C. Basis for impact fees. The following documents contain the public facilities needs assessments for the impact fees identified in Subsection
B above and demonstrate City compliance with the requirements of § 66.0617(3), Wis. Stats.:
[Amended 10-4-2018 by Ord. No. 2018-07]
(1) Public Facilities Needs Assessment, dated December 29, 2005, prepared
by Schreiber/Anderson Associates, Inc.; and
(2) Public Facilities Needs Assessment, dated November 2008, prepared
by Schreiber/Anderson Associates, Inc.
D. Disposition of impact fee revenue.
[Amended 10-4-2018 by Ord. No. 2018-07]
(1) Revenues collected by the City as impact fees shall be placed by
the City Clerk in segregated interest-bearing accounts, and shall
be accounted for separately from other funds of the City. Impact fee
revenues and interest earned on impact fee revenues may be expended
by the City only for the capital costs for which the impact fees were
imposed, and shall be expended on a first-in-first-out basis.
(2) In the event that the City should ever establish separate impact
fee zones with different fees depending upon the zone in which property
is located, separate accounts shall be kept of fees collected from
different impact fee zones, where the particular impact fee ordinance
provides for differential fees according to zones, and revenues collected
in particular zones shall be spent in those zones as appropriate.
E. Expenditure of impact fee revenue.
[Amended 10-4-2018 by Ord. No. 2018-07]
(1) The City determines the following lengths of time are appropriate
for the planning, financing, acquisition and construction of the public
facilities listed below:
Type of Facility
|
Maximum Time to Use Impact Fees Collected From the Time of Fee
Collection
|
---|
Public parks and recreation facilities
|
7
|
Public works facilities
|
7
|
Sanitary sewer system facilities
|
7
|
Stormwater facilities
|
7
|
(2) Fees held by the City under Subsection
D above, and not expended or encumbered within the time period specified herein, shall be refunded to the then-current owner of record of the property at the time of the refund and with respect to which the impact fees were imposed, together with the interest earned by the City on the impact fee so paid.
(3) Notwithstanding the provisions of Subsection
E(1) above, the seven-year period described therein may be extended for three additional years if the Common Council adopts a resolution stating that, due to extenuating circumstances or hardships in meeting the seven-year limit, it needs an additional three years to use the impact fees that were collected. The resolution shall specify the extenuating circumstances or hardship that led to the need to adopt such a resolution.
F. Use of impact fees. Funds collected from impact fees shall be used
solely for the purpose of paying the proportionate cost of providing
public facilities that may become necessary due to land development.
These costs may include the costs of debt service on bonds or similar
debt instruments when the debt has been incurred for the purpose of
proceeding with designated public facilities projects prior to the
collection of all anticipated impact fees for that project, to reimburse
the City for advances of other funds or reserves, and such other purposes
consistent with § 66.0617, Wis. Stats., which are recorded
and approved by the Common Council.
G. Payment of impact fees. All required impact fees, unless expressly
exempted in a section of this Municipal Code, shall be paid in full
prior to issuance of a building permit. Impact fee payments shall
be assumed to be the responsibility of the developer at the time a
building permit is issued.
H. Appeals. A "developer," as defined in § 66.0617(1)(b),
Wis. Stats., may appeal or contest the amount, collection or use of
the impact fee in the manner provided herein.
(1) It shall be a condition precedent to the commencement of such an
appeal that the impact fees from which the developer appeals shall
be paid as and when the fees become due and payable, and upon default
in making any such payments, such appeal may be dismissed.
(2) The only questions appealable under this subsection are the following,
as authorized by § 66.0617(10), Wis. Stats.:
(a)
The amount of fee charged and paid by the developer.
(b)
The method of collection of the impact fee.
(c)
The use to which the particular fee paid by the developer is
made by the municipality.
(3) Appeals must be brought within 30 days of the date of payment of
the impact fees.
(4) The appellant shall pay a filing fee of $250 at the time of filing
of the appeal. The notice of appeal shall be filed with the City Clerk.
(5) Following the filing of the notice of appeal, the City Clerk shall
compile a record of the ordinance imposing the impact fees that are
the subject of the appeal, a record of the management and expenditure
of the proceeds of the impact fees, and shall transmit these documents
to the Common Council. In consultation with the City departments,
the City Clerk shall also compile a report on each appeal in which
the appellant is seeking a reduction or total refund in the impact
fees paid. This report shall specify the fiscal impact on the City
of Waterloo if the appeal overturns the impact fees. If the fiscal
impact report indicates that the appeal, if successful, will cause
a revenue shortfall that otherwise was not budgeted with respect to
the public facility, and if this revenue shortfall cannot be reconciled
by reduction in impacts caused by development on the appellant's
property, the report shall estimate whether it will be necessary for
the City to adjust impact fees, or amend existing ordinances to recover
the proposed revenue shortfall.
(6) The Common Council shall hold a public hearing on the appeal, preceded
by a Class 1 notice, providing fair opportunity for the appellant
to be heard. The burden shall be on the appellant to establish illegality
or impropriety of the fees from which the appeal has been taken. Following
the close of the public hearing, the Common Council shall deliberate
upon the matter, and shall conduct such studies and inquiries as it
deems appropriate to decide the appeal.
(7) If the Common Council determines that the appeal has merit, it shall
determine appropriate remedies. These may include reallocation of
the proceeds of the challenged impact fees to accomplish the purposes
for which the fee was collected, refunding the impact fees in full
or in part, along with interest collected by the City thereon, or
granting the appellant the opportunity to make the impact fees payment
in installments, or such other remedies as it deems appropriate in
a particular case.
It shall be unlawful to build upon, divide,
convey, record or place monuments on any land in violation of this
chapter or the Wisconsin Statutes, and no person shall be issued a
building permit by the City authorizing the building on, or improvement
of, any subdivision, minor land division or replat within the jurisdiction
of this chapter not of record as of the effective date of this chapter
until the provisions and requirements of this chapter have been fully
met. The City may institute appropriate action or proceedings to enjoin
violations of this chapter or the applicable Wisconsin Statutes.