Town Council Votes Down Commercial Impact Fees [POLL]

The plan to impose impact fees on commercial development met with opposition at Monday night's Town Council meeting, with members approving an ordinace that changed the impact fee structure but did not expand it to include commercial development.

Councilman Mark Gee was alone in supporting the Planning Department's full proposal.

Impact fees on development are imposed to help offset additional spending on services that will result as a consequence of the development. They can be used for such things as road improvements, open space and park construction.

Planning Director Lisa Bourbonnais outlined the proposed changes to the impact fee ordinance. In the new fee structure, developers building would not have to pay an impact fee.

Another change would have the residential fee imposed based on the number of bedrooms of a particular housing unit, rather than the current structure which is based solely on a flat per-unit rate.

"We are changing the way we levy the fee from what was strictly a dwelling basis to a per-bedroom," explained Bourbonnais. "We feel that is a more fair way to access the fee. You get at the true impact of the development that way."

She illustrated her point by contrasting a 5-bedroom house on 2 acres versus a 2-bedroom townhouse. Under the new plan, the 5-bedroom house would result in a larger fee.

Councilor Jeff Cianciolo came out strongly against the impact fee on commercial development.

"We should eliminate the commercial impact fee. We stand out as one of the few in the state that charge it," he said. "We’re going to highlight ourselves as, 'Oh, East Greenwich, they have a commercial impact fee.'"

Cianciolo said homeowners bear too much of the tax burden in East Greenwich but that taxing businesses to come to EG would perhaps make them want to locate elsewhere.

Council President Michael Isaacs agreed. "I do think one of the things we need to do in this town is to try to take some of the burden off of homeowners and one way to do that is to develop more commercial properties," he said. "I don’t want to create a perception that we’re opposed to business."

When it came time to vote, Mark Gee was the only council member in favor of the commercial development impact fee.