Tucson, Arizona

Cost of Development and Impact Fee Study 
   

For the City of Tucson, Duncan Associates studied impact fees for roads, drainage, parks, libraries, police, fire and general government facilities. The analysis performed for this report found that impacta fees would be difficult to develop for only one of the types of facilities under condiseration - drainage. The review of the City's 10-year-old drainage master plan revealed that the capital improvements identified were limited to watersheds covering less than half of the City's jurisdiction and tended to be needed to address existing drainage problems, rather than growth-related impacts. Following the feasibility study, the City

directed the firm to proceed with development of road and park impact fees. Analysis of census data revealed that residents in the Central Core area of the city were more likely to utilize transit and other modes of transportation and also had shorter commutes. There were no significant differences in travel time or modal split between other areas. Based on these data, road impact fees for residential development in the Central Core were reduced by 23 percent. Road and park impact fees were adopted in September 2004. The firm subsequently provided peer review for the City's new impact fees for fire, police and public buildings.