James C. Nicholas

Determining the appropriate development impact fee using the rational nexus test ( USA)

Abstract In this article we review how local governments may apply the rational nexus test to attribute facility improvement costs to new development. We also discuss how to determine whether fee payers adequately benefit from the fees they pay, and how to calculate impact fees for water and sewer, road, park, and police facilities.

On the Progression of Impact Fees

Abstract This article examines various methods of assessing impact fees to cover infrastructure costs in terms of their socioeconomic consequences, and proposes an approach that appears to be more equitable than currently used techniques.

Can Development Impact Fees Help Mitigate Urban Sprawl

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Local governments often react to sprawl by adopting urban containment policies to limit fringe growth and encourage core development. An alternative is to design impact fee programs accounting for the higher costs of providing services to remote locations. Zone-based impact fee programs carry this potential, but there is no empirical work investigating their effect on residential development. We explored the effects of a zone-based impact fee program on residential permits issued across the Albuquerque, NM, metropolitan statistical area using 21 years of data, identifying countervailing influences on density. The program mitigated sprawl by reducing the share of construction occurring near the urban fringe and by increasing the share in more centrally located areas, but there is no evidence the program increased core development. During a brief period when Albuquerque had impact fees but an adjacent community did not, we observed spillover effects that exacerbated sprawl. Takeaway for practice: Planners managing sprawl can use zone-based impact fee programs that account for the higher costs of fringe development to effectively increase the density of residential construction, but it may be necessary to use regional programs or coordinated efforts to prevent spillover to adjacent communities.

Housing Costs and Prices Under Regional Regulation

The regulation of development by regional agencies was proposed in the American Law Institutes Model Land Development Code. The objective of this additional regulation was to bring new development into accord with the growing concern with environmental degradation. The State of Florida was the first state to adopt its own version of the Code. This article reviews the housing cost and price impacts of this regulatory process as it has evolved in Florida. The empirical evidence suggests that both the cost and the price of new housing subject to this review are increased above that of housing exempted. Copyright American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association.

Methodology of impact fees emphasizing vehicle miles traveled

This paper provides a working concept and methodology for application of a mobility fee in Florida. The mobility fee has many characteristics of an impact fee modified for sensitivity to vehicle miles traveled (VMT). Policy and practical implications of implementing such a fee are addressed, along with the fee methodology and illustration of the approach through hypothetical testing in Alachua County, Florida. The primary concept for the mobility fee is a modified impact fee assessed on new development. The approach presented anticipates regional cooperation in the development and adoption of a mobility plan that includes all transportation modes. Through sensitivity to VMT, the modified impact fee may help to discourage urban sprawl and reward mixed-use development and other development near or within existing activity centers. The hypothetical test results reveal that the two approaches—the average rate and the location-based rate—produce very different fees for new development. The paper reports on research performed for the Florida Department of Community Affairs.