The 'more-on' impact fees...

Title in salute to an old TV show (as in the right on Dan Rowen and the more-on Dick Martin... feel free to look that up in your Funk and Wagnalls!).

Ah yes, back to local impact fees. Our friend Ric Swats has put together an interesting column complete with looks at Arizona Revised Statutes and even bits of the Kingman Municipal Code for good measure.

Read the entire column here at MohaveBusiness.com.

One bit from the column...

The third paragraph, quoted in its entirety, says “Development fees shall result in a beneficial use to the development.”

State law also requires specific accounting and proof of the benefit the development receives from the payment of the fees.

It would be very difficult to prove diverting traffic to Kingman Crossing will be of benefit to businesses at the three current I-40 exits. It would be very easy to prove that it is, in fact, detrimental. So impact fees from construction accessed by way of Stockton Hill Road and Andy Devine could not be used to fund Kingman Crossing or Rattlesnake Wash because there is no way to prove they are of benefit to the developers.

Council members repeatedly referred to impact fee money benefitting Kingman Crossing or Rattlesnake Wash at the meeting Monday.

That law is quite specific. Not only does the money have to be spent to the benefit of the particular development, it must be held in a specific account and the interest on the account must also go to the benefit of that development.

Councilwoman Robin Gordon spoke about the possibility of lawsuits if the fees are lowered. It is more likely that the impact fee money already collected, but not spent to the benefit of the development from which it was collected, becomes the subject of a lawsuit.

Now I must admit that I'm not an attorney (although I'd be happy to play one if I was on TV), so I'll leave it to you to do your own fact-checking. We'll see where this goes.

Here is the write up from the KDM edition from yesterday. Incredible comments appear below, including this one...

PLEASE TELL ME WHAT "REVENUE" YOU ARE TRYING TO PROTECT HERE!!! Have you looked out your windows lately and see the economic carnage???

Yep, read the whole thing. Verrry Eeen-ter-es-ting!