By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
Mona Council members agree that
some changes need to be made in ordinances dealing with
subdivisions and annexations.
However, it will be at least two
weeks before any change is made to the subdivision ordinance
and agreement among council members about ways to handle an
annexation ordinance are still not smoothed out.
"It will take two more weeks for
our subdivision ordinance to be prepared," said Rick
Schnurr, council member. "The fees we are charging for
subdivisions are not adequate to cover the hidden
costs."
Aaron Painter, council member, said
he thinks annexation fees would not provide enough funds for
capital facilities.
If the intent of the city council
is to set aside money for future capital improvements, then
an impact or development fee needs to be imposed.
"If our intent is to bank money
up-front, then we need to have fees paid at annexation and
development," he said. "If we collect these fees, then we
need to have enough water to guarantee we can supply needs
."
Schnurr said that Santaquin city
council requires, by ordinance, that fees are paid on a per
acre basis.
"Payson requires water at the time
of annexation," said Doran Kay, council member. "We could
require that those annexing had enough water for inside
use," he said.
The city council could, said Kay,
ask for capital development fees so that there would be an
adequate amount of water for residents of the city in the
future.
Development of capital facilities
needed to keep up with growth and the demand or the
residents of the city would always be paying bond fees and
interest as one development after another would be needed to
keep up with growth.
As for the secondary water system
now being developed, said Kay, there was adequate water
going into the irrigation system for the proposed
project.
Apart from the secondary water
system in the community, farmers have field
shares.
"It is true that the secondary
system will relieve the pressure on the culinary system," he
said. More homes could be served with the same amount of
culinary water once the outside of properties can be watered
with irrigation water.
Painter said the development or
impact fee would provide the money needed to develop capital
facilities.
The drawback, said Kay, is that an
impact fee is governed by the impact fee act. All those who
deal with impact fees know that the government has imposed a
six-year limit on when the money is spent.
"That requirement can cause the
city to lose negotiating power," said Kay.
For example, he said, everyone
involved in the contracting business would know that the
city was on a time schedule to spend the money and the city
would, thereby, not have a strong negotiating point as to
the cost of projects.
"There are no strings attached to a
capital fund," Kay said. "It can sit in a capital fund and
gain interest forever and there is no act which governs how
longs the money can accumulate before being spent for
improvements."
That fact, protected the
negotiating base while the six-year limit, for date of
receipt, on the impact fee being spent was not
good.
"We would need to encumber, use, or
lose," said Kay.
Mayor Bryce Lynn said some of the
methods the city might employ to collect a fee would
effectively put a stop to development. Future development
needed to be planned for but some requirements might not be
in the best interest of the city's residents.
In the long run, if the city could
not effectively negotiate for the purchase of water for
future development they did have an ace that no other
negotiator had, said Schnurr.
The city has the power to condemn
water if restrictions set by the state and federal
governments are met.
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