§46-143 Impact fee calculation. (a) A county council or board considering the enactment or adoption of impact fees shall first approve a needs assessment study that shall identify the kinds of public facilities for which the fees shall be imposed. The study shall be prepared by an engineer, architect, or other qualified professional and shall identify service standard levels, project public facility capital improvement needs, and differentiate between existing and future needs.

(b) The data sources and methodology upon which needs assessments and impact fees are based shall be set forth in the needs assessment study.

(c) The pro rata amount of each impact fee shall be based upon the development and actual capital cost of public facility expansion, or a reasonable estimate thereof, to be incurred.

(d) An impact fee shall be substantially related to the needs arising from the development and shall not exceed a proportionate share of the costs incurred or to be incurred in accommodating the development. The following seven factors shall be considered in determining a proportionate share of public facility capital improvement costs:

(1) The level of public facility capital improvements required to appropriately serve a development, based on a needs assessment study that identifies:

(A) Deficiencies in existing public facilities;

(B) The means, other than impact fees, by which existing deficiencies will be eliminated within a reasonable period of time; and

(C) Additional demands anticipated to be placed on specified public facilities by a development;

(2) The availability of other funding for public facility capital improvements, including but not limited to user charges, taxes, bonds, intergovernmental transfers, and special taxation or assessments;

(3) The cost of existing public facility capital improvements;

(4) The methods by which existing public facility capital improvements were financed;

(5) The extent to which a developer required to pay impact fees has contributed in the previous five years to the cost of existing public facility capital improvements and received no reasonable benefit therefrom, and any credits that may be due to a development because of such contributions;

(6) The extent to which a developer required to pay impact fees over the next twenty years may reasonably be anticipated to contribute to the cost of existing public facility capital improvements through user fees, debt service payments, or other payments, and any credits that may accrue to a development because of future payments; and

(7) The extent to which a developer is required to pay impact fees as a condition precedent to the development of non-site related public facility capital improvements, and any offsets payable to a developer because of this provision.

(e) The impact fee ordinance shall contain a provision setting forth the process by which a developer may contest the amount of the impact fee assessed. [L 1992, c 282, pt of §2; am L 2001, c 235, §3; am L 2004, c 155, §3]