Duncan Associates

Activist says Ascension school growth 'critical'
2theadvocate.com, LA - Sep 27, 2005
Ascension Parish needs an "adequate public facilities ordinance" that would tie residential development with the capacity of the school system to handle new students, a community activist

Port St. Lucie authorizes study of new impact fee
Palm Beach Post, FL - Sep 27, 2005
Hours after approving a $9 increase in storm-water utility fees Monday, city council members took the first step toward creating a new storm-water impact fee to help keep new homes high

Builders to challenge Palm Beach County on growth fees
Palm Beach Post, FL - Sep 27, 2005
Anti-tax sentiment is expected to simmer again in Palm Beach County today as the local builders association plans to oppose a proposed impact fee increase. Owners of new homes

Impact fees on new residential development proposed by state
New Bern Sun Journal, NC - Sep 27, 2005
Local governments have been trying for years - if not decades - to get the General Assembly to authorize them to assess impact fees on new residential development. The fees - which could

Jefferson County considering raising impact fees
Hagerstown Morning Herald, MD - Sep 26, 2005
School impact fees for new single-family homes in Jefferson County would increase by $1,283 under a proposal being considered by the Jefferson County Commission. Under the plan, the ... (PDF click here)

Proposal on growth draws fire
Charlotte Observer, NC - Sep 25, 2005
Planners call it a choice for developers. Developers call it an added cost that will be passed to home buyers. By any label, Lincoln County's proposed "adequate public facilities ordinance" ... (PDF click here)

'Smart Growth' isn't always smart growth
Hagerstown Morning Herald, MD - Sep 25, 2005
In early 2001, as the stock market bubble was collapsing and companies such as Pets.com, e-Toys and Webvan were fading into oblivion, a money management firm launched an ad campaign ... (PDF click here)

Libraries' impact fee on table
Orlando Sentinel, FL - Sep 25, 2005
The Polk County Commission will decide Wednesday whether to adopt an impact fee for libraries. If approved, the fee for single-family homes would be $197.

Commissioners this year ... (PDF click here)

State lawmakers could get involved in impact-fee fray
Orlando Sentinel, FL - Sep 24, 2005
As Florida's population booms and impact fees collected to pay the costs of growth fill local coffers, state lawmakers want to know if legislation is needed to regulate how those fees are ... (PDF click here)

Builders see solution to school-fee dispute
Orlando Sentinel, FL - Sep 24, 2005
Attorneys for a home-builders group offered a compromise in a battle over school-impact fees during a hearing Friday at the Osceola County Courthouse. Lawyers for the Home Builders ... (PDF click here)

Parking impact fees target of petition
The Union Leader, NH - Sep 24, 2005
When Jim Clark was thinking about relocating his downtown coffee shop a few streets away to a more visible location, he found out he couldn't afford to move. It wasn't the high rents Bow ... (PDF click here)

Red Bluff, Chamber to meet on fee study
Red Bluff Daily News, CA - Sep 23, 2005
The City of Red Bluff and the Red Bluff-Tehama County Chamber of Commerce will meet once again regarding the Development Impact Fee Study. The public meeting will take place at the ... (PDF click here)

City parking fee draws fire
Portsmouth Herald News, NH - Sep 23, 2005
A petition drive has been launched to try and persuade officials to change the city’s public-parking system and ease the burden on small business. Copies of a letter addressed to Mayor Evelyn ... (PDF click here)

Child-care fee moves forward
The Desert Sun, CA - Sep 23, 2005
An innovative ordinance to charge commercial developers a special fee to pay for more child-care facilities in Palm Desert took a big step toward passage at Thursday's City Council meeting. The ... (PDF click here)

Cost to extend SAWS: $852
San Antonio Express (subscription), TX - Sep 23, 2005
City Council members on Thursday easily passed a temporary water-supply impact fee of $852 for new homes built in the San Antonio Water System's service area. But the discussion leading ... (PDF click here)

The Effect of Skyrocketing Park Impact Fees on San Diego Apartment rents
Voice of San Diego, CA - Sep 23, 2005
Sometimes our government, which was established to serve the populace, gets things so turned around that a good citizen can't figure out whether they should laugh or cry. So it is with a ... (PDF click here)

County studies education impact fee
Ocala.com, FL - Sep 22, 2005
The cost of building a single-family hoCme in Marion County will increase substantially if a proposed education impact fee is approved. If the fee recommended by the School Board is ... (PDF click here)

Nevada County Transportation Commission: To Fee or Not to Fee
YubaNet, CA - Sep 22, 2005
To fee or not to fee, that was the question before the Nevada County Transportation Commission (NCTC) Wednesday morning as commissioners discussed the Regional Transportation Mitigation ... (PDF click here)

Developers subsidizing childcare?
The Desert Sun, CA - Sep 22, 2005
Families across the country are calling Stella Leonard's child-care center in Palm Desert, hoping to nab one of her highly coveted 75 spaces. And right now she's turning them all down. "I can't ... (PDF click here)

Wildlife habitat law may change
ReviewJournal.com, NV - Sep 21, 2005
As Congress this week reviews protections for endangered species, Las Vegas stakeholders are casting a nervous eye on an initiative some fear could unravel local efforts to spur development ... (PDF click here)

Pay now, or later
Florida Today, FL - Sep 21, 2005
Growth. That, in a word, is what Brevard County is all about. Just since 2000, 44,000 new residents -- roughly the population of Titusville -- have poured into our community. Meeting the ... (PDF click here)

Polk Home Permit Hot Streak Continues
The Ledger, FL - Sep 21, 2005
Just because summer is ending doesn't mean Polk's real estate market is cooling off. Polk County's builders pulled 980 single-family home permits in August; 359 more than a year ago. This total ... (PDF click here)

City will try to resolve differences
Orlando Sentinel, FL -Sep 21, 2005
The City Council has voted to try to resolve its differences with the Lake County School Board before proceeding with a legal challenge over more than $700,000 in supplemental education ... (PDF click here)

County extends lot fee deadline
St. Petersburg Times, FL - Sep 21, 2005
To the landowners who have already paid the old, lower impact fees on vacant lots, the County Commission lived up to a promise on Tuesday. The Commission voted to extend from ... (PDF click here)

City Impact Fees Add $5,000 To New Home
Polk County Democrat, FL - Sep 20, 2005
Impact fees adopted by the Bartow city commission will add about $5,000 to the price of a new home, Gene Boles, the city's impact fee consultant from theUniversity of Florida, told the city ... (PDF click here)

Sycamore eyes increased impact fees for schools, parks
MidWeek, IL - Sep 20, 2005
Impact fees for the Sycamore School District and the Sycamore Park District may be increased in the near future. Members of the Sycamore Plan Commission approved a motion during their Sept. ... (PDF click here)

Guidon: Growth cause for impact fee
Canon City Daily Record, CO - Sep 20, 2005
Monday night, the Cañon City Council took the next step toward creating a fire district impact fee by approving the first reading of an ordinance imposing an impact fee for fire protection ... (PDF click here)

County urges up-to-date data in impact fee projections
Reno Gazette Journal, NV - Sep 20, 2005
Use of up-to-date information has been urged in considering projected growth in Lyon County’s future, as impact fees need to be calculated as accurately as possible. This was one of the bigger ... (PDF click here)

Council approves impact fee increase
Dekalb Daily Chronicle, IL -Sep 20, 2005
Developers will pay the Sycamore school and park districts more in impact fees after the city council's decision Monday to raise them. The council acted on a suggestion to increase the fees ... (PDF click here)

CMS asks city to add fee for rezoning
Charlotte Observer, NC - Sep 20, 2005
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools took an unprecedented step Monday, asking the city to make some developers pay a fee if they add new students to already overcrowded schools. School ... (PDF click here)

Council to work on impact-fee panel
Daily Inter Lake, MT - Sep 19, 2005
Formation of an impact-fees committee faces Kalispell's city council today. The state requires such an advisory committee to review the calculating, assessing and spending of standard ... (PDF click here)

Impact fees for schools belong in win column
Orlando Sentinel, FL - Sep 18, 2005
If the battle over impact fees were a football game, this summer's ruling by a circuit judge upholding the method used to calculate Osceola's school-impact fees is the equivalent of scoring a ... (PDF click here)

Who decides? Aldermen want council vote on impact fees; attorney wants election
Northwest Arkansas Times, AR - Sep 18, 2005
The question of who will decide whether Fayetteville will assess additional development charges to pay for police and fire infrastructure comes down to the whether they would be considered

Formula for road costs needed
Ocala.com, FL - Sep 18, 2005
Just when Marion County and Ocala officials are finally giving serious and overdue consideration to ensuring big-money developers pay a larger, more equitable share of our runaway infrastructure ... (PDF click here)

Polk passes big increase in impact fee to aid schools
Orlando Sentinel, FL - Sep 18, 2005
The Polk County Commission secured future funding for education last week when it voted to increase the school impact fee by more than 400 percent on single-family homes. The school impact ... (PDF click here)

Builders just oppose improper impact fees
Orlando Sentinel, FL - Sep 18, 2005
You may have read that the Volusia Home Builders Association recently won a legal judgment over the huge school impact fee increase. For the record, the association is unopposed to ... (PDF click here)

Sutherlin looks to add fees to buy park land
The News-Review, OR - Sep 17, 2005
New homes built in Sutherlin next year will likely face an additional system development charge, which would be used to purchase park land. The concept was discussed at a Sutherlin Parks ... (PDF click here)

Homebuilders file suit against city
Herald Zeitung, TX - Sep 17, 2005
The Greater New Braunfels Homebuilders Association filed a lawsuit seeking to have the city’s stormwater development fee ruled illegal — and preventing the collection of fees until a judge ... (PDF click here)

Impact fees up for debate
Hernando Today, FL - Sep 16, 2005
County Commission Chairman Robert Schenck will have a chance to make good on his promise to try and protect those who paid impact fees before they were nearly doubled this summer. ... (PDF click here)

Population increase funds state of the art parks
WBBH, FL - Sep 16, 2005
As more people move into Southwest Florida, their impact fee dollars are paying for new parks. Some new, state of the art parks are already underway in Lee County. Schandler Hall Park ... (PDF click here)

ACTC urges Plymouth to join regional traffic mitigation fee plan
Amador Ledger-Dispatch, CA - Sep 16, 2005
Charles Field, executive director of the Amador County Transportation Commission, hosted a public workshop on traffic fees for development and urged the Plymouth City Council last ... (PDF click here)

Clash on St. Lucie impact fees still boiling
Palm Beach Post, FL - Sep 15, 2005
City and county officials made little headway in their dispute over how to divide impact fees for public buildings, roads and parks Thursday, meaning new-home builders south of Midway ... (PDF click here)

UF expert gives School Board a primer on impact fees
Naples Daily News (subscription), FL - Sep 15, 2005
If you wanted to get an education on how impact fees work, Thursday's Collier County School Board workshop was for you. But people who were wondering whether the School Board ... (PDF click here)

Polk jacks up impact fee so it can build more schools
Sun-Sentinel.com, FL - Sep 15, 2005
Lagging far behind in getting growth to pay for itself, Polk County commissioners on Wednesday approved a more than 400 percent increase in the impact fee to help build new ... (PDF click here)

New development should help pay for schools, roads
Chambersburg Public Opinion, PA - Sep 15, 2005
Drive just about anywhere in Franklin County and you'll see new development cropping up — both residential and commercial. In southern Franklin County, the growth has exceeded ... (PDF click here)

Home Builders drop impact fee lawsuit
Gulf Breeze News, FL - Sep 15, 2005
At the September Workshop Meeting of the Midway Board of Commissioners, Commissioner Buck Thackeray announced that the Home Builders Association of West Florida (HBA) ... (PDF click here)

New fees for schools are faulty, judge says
Orlando Sentinel, FL - Sep 14, 2005
The Volusia Home Builders Association on Tuesday won a legal battle in its fight against the county's new $5,284-per-new-house impact fee for schools. But it was not immediately clear ... (PDF click here)

Polk Raises School Impact Fee
The Ledger, FL - Sep 14, 2005
Polk County commissioners today approved raising the county's school impact fee from $1,607 for a single-family home to $8,596. Polk will have among highest school impact fees in the ... (PDF click here)

Impact fees tabled
Morris Daily Herald, IL - Sep 13, 2005
At the request of village attorney Scott Belt, the Gardner Village Board Monday tabled an agreement/ ordinance between the village and Gardner Grade School until next meeting. Belt also ... (PDF click here)

Planners say Sycamore needs higher impact fees
Dekalb Daily Chronicle, IL - Sep 13, 2005
Impact fees on new homes aren't high enough to cover the costs of expanding Sycamore's park and school facilities to serve a growing population, according to the city's plan ... (PDF click here)

Hopkinton eyes doubling fees for development
Westerly Sun, RI - Sep 13, 2005
A plan by the Town Council could double impact fees collected on new residential homes. During a workshop at Town Hall Monday night, councilors advanced a proposal that would ... (PDF click here)

Athens raises water, sewer rates, impact fees
The Decatur Daily, AL - Sep 13, 2005
Citizens of Athens, your water and sewer bills are going up after the Athens City Council approved increases at Monday's meeting. John Stockton, manager of the Athens Water and ... (PDF click here)

Ruling frames battle over Volusia County school impact fee
Daytona Beach News-Journal, FL - Sep 14, 2005
The Volusia Home Builders Association claimed a victory Tuesday ... saying a judge's ruling reopens debate about how much the schools can charge. "We know we are going to have ... (PDF click here)

Developers in Newberry may face extra fees
Gainesville Sun, FL - Sep 13, 2005
Developers would pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in development fees next year under a proposal the City Commission endorsed during a meeting here on Monday. In the first of two ... (PDF click here).

Athens raises water, sewer rates, impact fees
The Decatur Daily, AL - Sep 13, 2005
Citizens of Athens, your water and sewer bills are going up after the Athens City Council approved increases at Monday's meeting. John Stockton, manager of the Athens Water and ... (PDF click here)

Impact fees ease pain of growth
Atlanta Journal Constitution (subscription), GA - Sep 11, 2005
Every year, more cities and counties are adopting impact fees to mitigate the cost of road improvements, water and sewer lines, parks, libraries and police and ... Local ... (PDF click here)

Education impact fee could hit new homes
Ocala.com, FL - Sep 11, 2005
Marion County home buyers already paying record-high prices could find themselves fronting another cost to help with local schools. Faced with explosive growth and a little pressure ... (PDF click here)

Polk's school fees could jump
Orlando Sentinel, FL - Sep 11, 2005

The Polk County Commission has proved so far this year that it supports allowing growth to pay for itself with impact fees. Already in 2005, the five-member commission has increased ... (PDF click here)

Schools pay price of growth
St. Petersburg Times, FL - Sep 11, 2005

Hillsborough school leaders say they are losing the fight to build schools fast enough to keep up with new students. But records show they have done little in recent years to sound the ... (PDF click here)

Impact fees a growing way to pay safety costs
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, WI - Sep 10, 2005
When the Sturtevant Village Board last month approved a study to determine the feasibility of increasing building fees to help finance the police and fire departments, the village ... (PDF click here)

City Council rejects school impact fee
Chicago Tribune, IL - Sep 10,2005
Elmhurst officials this week rejected a proposal from Elmhurst Community Unit School District 205 to impose an impact fee on home construction in the city. The City Council voted 9-5 ... (PDF click here)

Red Bluff mulls developer fees
Red Bluff Daily News, CA - Sep 09,2005
The City of Red Bluff will consider more than doubling the current developer impact fees from $6,295 to $12,613 per single family residence. Commercial impact fees would be set at ... (PDF click here)

Impact Fees set for public hearing
Baker County Standard, FL - Sep 09,2005
The long awaited county impact fee ordinance will get its first public hearing on September 19, after commissioners voted Tuesday night to proceed with the [road and school] fees ... (PDF click here)

Court hears impact fees appeal
Lincoln Journal Star, NE - Sep 07, 2005
The Nebraska Supreme Court on Wednesday was asked to decide if an impact fee adopted by the city of Lincoln constituted an illegal tax. In oral arguments before the high court, Lincoln ... (PDF click here)

New Home Impact Fees Considered
The Ledger, FL - Sep 07, 2005
New homeowners in Lakeland may pay another $720 in water and sewer impact fees. The Lakeland City Commission discussed increased fees at a workshop Tuesday. Based on a new ... (PDF click here)

Impact fee ordinance revision gets board OK
BurlingtonFreePress.com, VT - Sep 07, 2005
The Selectboard on Tuesday night narrowly approved a new ordinance that would revise new housing construction impact fees for schools and add a fee for fire protection. The 3-2 vote ... (PDF click here)

Logan adopts impact fee resolution
Salt Lake Tribune, UT - Sep 07, 2005
The effects of new growth on essential services - fire and police, water and sewer, roads and electricity - are clear to Logan officials. But how to pay for an ever-increasing demand ... (PDF click here)

Expanded grandfather clause may help ease Indian River's impact fees
Vero Beach Press-Journal (subscription), FL - Sep 07, 2005
Hundreds of new home buyers may be able to escape the latest increase in impact fees under an expanded grandfather clause endorsed Tuesday by the County Commission. "This ... (PDF click here)

PSL, St. Lucie County bicker over collection of impact fees
Fort Pierce Tribune (subscription), FL - Sep 07, 2005
Unless St. Lucie County and Port St. Lucie officials soon can agree, the county will collect impact fees on its own in the city beginning Oct. 1. The County Commission voted 4-1 Tuesday ... (PDF click here)

Buyers of new Indian River County homes can't avoid impact fees
Vero Beach Press-Journal (subscription), FL - Sep 06, 2005
Of 360 home buyers who hoped to beat the July 1 increase in county impact fees by showing pre-existing contracts, two-thirds of them may not qualify under the county's rules ... (PDF click here)

Impact fees need to reflect reality
Sarasota Herald-Tribune, FL - Sep 06, 2005
The newcomers to Southwest Florida don't mean to be a burden, but they are. They clog our roads, they tap into our drinking water, they demand more police and fire protection... (PDF click here)

School Board Supports Impact Fees, Recognizes PE Advocate
Polk County Democrat, FL - Sep 05, 2005
The Polk County school board has voted to support the proposed new impact fees to raise money for the increased costs of building new schools. The sole dissenting vote was that of ... (PDF click here)

Down a road less traveled
Ocala.com, FL - Sep 05, 2005
For the better part of a decade the idea of making growth pay for itself in Marion County has had more than its share of advocates. But no matter how massive the backlog of infrastructure.. (PDF click here)

Richmond to hold impact-fees hearing Tuesday
BurlingtonFreePress.com, VT - Sep 05, 2005
A revised impact fees ordinance will have a public hearing and possibly a Selectboard vote Tuesday night at the Town Center meeting room. Following a narrow defeat of a proposed revision ... (PDF click here)

Impact fees need to reflect reality
Sarasota Herald-Tribune, FL - Sep 04, 2005
The newcomers to Southwest Florida don't mean to be a burden, but they are. They clog our roads, they tap into our drinking water, they demand more police and fire protection, their ... (PDF click here)

Guest commentary: Impact fees must be assessed, analyzed ...
Naples Daily News (subscription), FL - Sep 04, 2005
With all the rapid growth in our area and the resulting effects upon schools, roads, fire protection, parks, law enforcement and other government services, we often hear that impact fees ... (PDF click here)

Developer complains of impact fees
Aurora Beacon News, IL - Sep 02, 2005
A home builder complained to the Village Board this week about the village's impact fees. Rich Smolik Sr., developer of Alexander Place on the south side of the community, said he felt ... (PDF click here)

City, county hire firm for planning process
Calhoun Times, GA - Sep 02, 2005
The Gordon County Commission and Calhoun City Council have jointly selected MACTEC Engineering and Consulting to guide them through the state-mandated comprehensive planning ... (PDF click here)

PUB to study impact fees for developers
Brownsville Herald, TX - Sep 02, 2005
After months of disagreements on ways to save money, the Pub-lic Utilities Board is moving ahead on a top-to-bottom organizational study and a com-prehensive review of the fees ... (PDF click here)

Eyed impact fees stir debate
Spokane Journal of Business, WA - Sep 02, 2005
The city of Spokane wants to turn its temporary, voluntary transportation-impact fee into a permanent, mandatory fee on new development, an idea that’s dusting up debate in business ... (PDF click here)

Impact fees one step closer
Catoosa County News, GA - Aug 31, 2005
Catoosa County commissioners will learn the maximum impact fees the county could charge developers on September 6. Impact fees are charged to developers to offset the costs of ... (PDF click here)

Nonresidential impact fees OK'd
Enterprise-Record, CA - Aug 31, 2005
In just under two months it is going to get more expensive to build commercial and industrial developments in Butte County. Tuesday the Board of Supervisors established a ... (PDF click here)

County backs off building ban
Bradenton Herald, FL - Aug 31, 2005
The Manatee County Commission backed away Tuesday from the idea of imposing a building moratorium across the county until more roads and schools are built. No vote was ... (PDF click here)

Supervisors approve non-residential impact fees
Mercury-Register, CA - Aug 31, 2005
BACKGROUND: For months the Butte County Board of Supervisors has discussed the imposition of impact fees on non-residential developments. WHAT'S NEW: Tuesday the ... (PDF click here)

Impact fees, not gas tax, should pay for new roads
St. Petersburg Times, FL - Aug 31, 2005
Re: Raising gas tax is a hard but right road to take, Jim Fowler letter, Aug. 26. The letter by Citrus County Commissioner Jim Fowler states, among other things, his reasoning for his ... (PDF click here)

Builder: Triple the impact fees
MidWeek, IL - Aug 30, 2005
A DeKalb-area builder told the Plan Commission last week that the already tripled impact fees should be tripled again. City staff have proposed that total impact fee be increased from ... (PDF click here)

GOP Executive Committee Opposes New Polk Taxes
Polk County Democrat, FL - Aug 30, 2005
In a rare, perhaps unprecedented, move, the Polk County Republican Executive Committee voted 30-to-4 Thursday night to urge four Republican county commissioners to abandon ... (PDF click here)

County sets hearing on impact fee proposal
Reno Gazette Journal, NV -Aug 30, 2005
The Lyon County Board of Commissioners will conduct a public hearing on Sept. 15 to consider land-use assumptions that are a requirement towards implementation of impact fees in ... (PDF click here)

Property tax increase to replace failed fire fee
Palatka Daily News, FL - Aug 30, 2005
The growth in the city's budget next year will be covered by an increase in property taxes since th