HURRICANE — The Hurricane City Council voted unanimously to raise the power impact recovery rate from 75% to 100% on Thursday night.
Hurricane City Power Director Scott Hughes explained to the council that the rates were lowered several years ago to encourage new development in the community, but since then building has boomed and the city is absorbing that cost unnecessarily.
Impact fees for new development are an alternative to raising every resident’s property taxes to pay for additional infrastructure, such as new power stations, transmission lines, sewer and water, Hurricane City Mayor Nanette Billings told St. George News.
“The fees were lowered by previous administration in 2017 when there was not much building going on,” Billings said. “But new development causes the need for new power stations or to upgrade existing infrastructure. The practice of lowering impact fees to encourage development is common in other communities.”
Hughes said in the meeting that a residential homebuilder currently pays $1,946 in impact fees to build a new home in Hurricane. Since the council voted to return to the previous policy of the developer/homebuilder incurring 100% of the impact fees, it will now cost $2,421.
In 2016, Parowan City suspended the impact fees for new commercial construction for six months to encourage new businesses to consider building in the county seat of Iron County.
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