Homebuilders hail law easing impact fees

Cities and towns across Arizona will have a harder time requiring developers to pay for everything from infrastructure to services under legislation signed by Gov. Jan Brewer. The legislation, Senate Bill 1525, puts a temporary end to a six-year fight between Arizona cities and homebuilders. "This is a substantive change to the impact-fee statutes," said Spencer Kamps, chief lobbyist for the Home Builders Association of Central Arizona. "They (statutes) haven't been updated in the 20 years since they were adopted, and we grow differently, we build differently and cities plan differently. We've made that argument for a number of years." The homebuilders and cities and towns agreed on the sweeping legislation that requires cities to change the way they collect impact fees and what they can pay for with that money. It creates public-notice and hearing procedures to replace current systems by Aug. 1, 2014, or a municipality will be unable to continue collecting fees. The law also created a list of uses for which impact fees can be charged. A moratorium on new impact-fee changes until the 2015 legislative session gives both sides time to cool off and allows time for the new statute to fully take effect. "At the end of the day, being able to at least negotiate a cease-fire, that's something," said Avondale City Attorney Andrew McGuire, a negotiator in the hard-fought compromise. "That's an accomplishment."

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