Hollister
– Wastewater and treatment impact fees are expected to soar more
than $22,000 in the next few years to pay for the city’s $120
million sewer project and could raise the cost of local homes.
Hollister – Wastewater and treatment impact fees are expected to soar more than $22,000 in the next few years to pay for the city’s $120 million sewer project and could raise the cost of local homes.
The fees, borne by builders and passed on to buyers, are expected to increase from about $3,300 to $25,000 per single residential home almost immediately, according to a preliminary study ordered by the Hollister City Council, said City Manager Clint Quilter. The fees are expected to finance 46 percent of the city’s $120 million sewer treatment plant. Monthly sewer rates, which are expected to increase 165 percent by 2009, will fund the remaining 54 percent of the project. The plant is expected to be completed in 2008 and will end the state-imposed moratorium on new sewer connections in the city. The ban was levied in 2002 in the wake of a spill of 15 million gallons of treated waste water into the San Benito River that year.
Quilter said Thursday that he and City Council members were concerned with the affect the increased fees would have on home prices. He said the $25,000 figure for impact fees was the result of a preliminary study. More detailed studies on how high the fees will have to be raised to pay for the sewer project have yet to be completed, Quilter said.
City Councilman Doug Emerson said that if the sewer impact fees are raised to $25,000, the total cost of impacts fees for a new residential home would jump to somewhere between $55,000 to $60,000.
“If that’s where it ends up, it will make it real difficult to find affordable housing,” he said.
Emerson said he doesn’t expect the increasing fees to drive away developers, but that they will raise the price of new homes throughout the city.
“The developers are still going to make their profits,” he said. “Impact fees are real difficult. They have to be fair according to usage and you have to pay for the service that is provided.”
Councilman Brad Pike agreed. He said, like it or not, the state has mandated that the city build a new sewer. The sewer project is not designed solely to facilitate additional growth, Pike said. The state has ordered Hollister to revamp its wastewater treatment facilities and the city must comply in order to avoid costly sanctions, he said.
“We’re all impacted by this; there’s no room for error,” Pike said. “The state is telling us to jump three feet high, not two and a half.”
Broker Associate Dee Brown, who works with ReMax Platinum Properties in Hollister, said increased impact fees almost always translate into higher home prices.
“The fees don’t scare away developers. The developers will come, they see a pent up market here,” she said. “But prices will increase. The developers will pay the fees and pass the savings right on to the buyers.”
Brett Rowland covers public safety for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or [email protected].
