By Taylor Wooten for the Daily Journal
Residential developers in Bargersville will soon begin paying a bit more per unit to support the town’s parks.
The council unanimously approved an increased recreation impact fee Tuesday, which will be a flat $1,580 per unit for developers. The fee is intended to bring the town’s parks up to a new standard and fulfill park needs for the next ten years, town officials said.
The recreation impact fee is charged to developers at the time a building permit is issued. They are only applicable to new residential developments, with homeowners and renters typically paying back the fees to developers.
The fee will raise $1.67 million to remedy current revenue deficiencies and about $3.3 million to fulfill future needs for parks and trails by 2030. The fee takes effect in June, six months following the approval of the fee.
The fee was recommended by the Recreation Impact Fee Advisory Committee and Chuck Lehman of Lehman & Lehman, a consultant the town hired to study the impact fee.
In 2017, the impact fee was set at $748 for a single-family home and $710 for each unit of a multi-family home. The new fee is more than double that amount, but parks impact fees in the surrounding communities have also been on the rise.
For example, the city of Franklin tripled the impact fee paid by developers to build homes in 2020 from the rate it had been in 2015. Right now developers in Franklin pay $1,142 per home and $742 per apartment unit, compared to the previous $376 fee.
The new fee for Bargersville is a forecast of what the town may need in response to population growth, Lehman said. The study uses an estimated 2030 Bargersville population of 15,210.
The fee is also based on new standards for recreation that were established by the town. The standard is eight acres of parkland per 1,000 residents and one mile of trail per 1,750 residents.
The fee is on par with local municipalities, with Carmel having the highest at nearly $3,000. In a list of 22 nearby communities, the study says the average recreation impact fee is $1,346.
The council also amended the ordinance to include a 3% minimum increase for inflation. The annual increases could be higher to match the consumer price index.
Previously, the town used a different calculation for multi-family properties. This was initially recommended to continue, but after questions from town council member Andrew Greenwood, the council voted to strike down the scaled fees.
After some debate, the council decided to create a flat rate that would apply to all housing developers, regardless of the type of dwelling they plan to build. Lehman told the council other communities use a flat rate.
