Waukesha raises home builder fees

May 16, 2012

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By Laurel Walker of the Journal Sentinel

May 16, 2012 0

Waukesha - It will soon cost more to build a new home in Waukesha - up to about $4,200 more, based on the Common Council's decision Tuesday to add new and higher impact fees to future development.

The city has been charging so-called impact fees since 1995 for sanitary sewer facilities and parks, both of which would be raised under the new study. In addition, new fees will be imposed to help pay for other additional public services - the library, law enforcement and fire and emergency medical services.

Aldermen voted unanimously Tuesday to revise the fees, a revision that also removes the existing $500 per acre sewer impact fee charged developers and eliminates the existing $2,100 per acre storm water impact fee. An ordinance will be drafted for council action in June.

The rationale for the new fees is based on a public facilities needs study by Ruekert & Mielke Inc., which identified about $9 million in new public improvements and $2 million in already completed projects needed to address future growth in the city.

Interim City Administrator Steve Crandell said the question is whether the council wanted current city property owners to bear the cost of future development or assign those costs through impact fees on future residents. Many neighboring communities charge impact fees, aldermen noted.

No one commented on the proposal during a public hearing Tuesday.

While the fee will be charged to the developer or builder who takes out a building permit, the cost is generally passed on to the homebuyer. The consultant estimated that based on financing the added cost as part of a 30-year mortgage at 6.5% interest - high under current market conditions - the buyer of a $150,000 home would pay 2.4% more while the purchaser of a $250,000 home would pay 1.47% more for a home.

About Laurel Walker

Laurel Walker covered local, school and county government for 20 years -- the last half of that at the Milwaukee Journal and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel -- before she was named Waukesha County columnist in 1997. Today she writes about the people, places and events around metropolitan Milwaukee with a broad suburban focus. She was the youngest of nine children raised on a central Wisconsin farm before leaving the nest for journalism studies at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and a masters degree at the University of Oregon. She has spent the last half of her life in Waukesha County, where she and her husband raised two sons. Though she has a fondness for life in Waukesha, she eagerly partakes in the culture of the big city to the east and the recreation of the forests to the west. With sons in the arts, she has a special fondness for symphonic music concerts and art museums. She finds peace in a good book at a Northwoods getaway weekend, adventure in family visits to the east and west coasts, and satisfaction in a column well-written that reaches readers.