Raleigh, North Carolina

Road and Park Impact Fee Study
   

For the City of Raleigh, Duncan Associates reviewed the City’s 17-year old road and park impact (facility) fees. Since the fees had essentially not been reviewed or adjusted since their initial adoption in 1987, they had become among the lowest in the nation. To gain local input, a series of stakeholder interviews were first held with representatives of homebuilding and development communities, the parks board and non-profit organizations. The study pointed out that Raleigh’s fees were significantly lower than those in other cities and counties in North Carolina and in other competitive major

metropolitan cities around the nation. The most general and obvious conclusion from the study was that the City’s impact fees had not stayed current with increases in costs of land acquisition and construction relating to roads and parks. This was apparent in both fee collection and developer reimbursement rates. Funds from fee revenues were significantly less than the actual costs of fee-eligible parks and roads projects. Low fee collections were also contributing to lengthy reimbursement periods for developers, as well as their not being reimbursed for the true cost of a project. The study also noted that the boundaries of fee benefit zones that were established back in the 1980s should be reevaluated due to the changing character of local urban growth patterns.