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City Council approves impact fee increases | Western Colorado | gjsentinel.com

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Impact Fee Increases Approved

The Grand Junction City Council voted unanimously to raise impact fees on new developments. These fees, charged to fund infrastructure improvements like parks, fire, police, and transportation, will increase gradually over six years, starting January 1, 2026. The increases will be tied to inflation.

Concerns and Justification

While the development industry expressed worry about higher housing costs due to these increases, city officials argued that previous compromises resulted in insufficient funding for capital investments. Mayor Abe Herman emphasized that the proposal had minimal impact on residential development, while city council member Scott Beilfuss noted the difficulty in finding alternative funding methods.

Future Adjustments

The city plans to review the fee levels every six to eight years. City Manager Mike Bennett suggested that tying the fees to an inflation index will minimize the need for frequent revisions, except in extraordinary circumstances.

Fees will increase in six steps, every six months.
Future adjustments will be tied to inflation.
Council will review fees every six to eight years.

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Grand Junction City Council voted unanimously April 2 to approve a slate of changes in the city’s impact fee policies, including several increases.

Impact fees are one-time fees charged to new developments for growth and development infrastructure.

City staff recommended City Council adopt the maximum supportable impact fees for parks, fire, police and transportation, while not adopting impact fees for municipal facilities or an affordable housing linkage fee.

The fees will increase to their full level via a six-step increase process, with an increase every six months starting Jan. 1, 2026.

The fees will be tied to inflation for future increases and decreases.

Members of the development industry have expressed concerns about the impact fees leading to higher housing costs.

Community Development Director Tamra Allen said fees being set lower than the maximum supportable level has led to some missing capital investment by the city.

“We’ve right sized this and right sized this and right sized this,” Mayor Abe Herman said. “We’ve made compromise after compromise after compromise. We’re at a point where we have a really reasonable proposal in front of us that has little impact on the residential side of things and actually tremendous benefit on the commercial side of things.”

Council Member Scott Beilfuss said the city hasn’t come up with a better way to fund infrastructure other than passing the costs directly to the taxpayers.

“That’s really a hard thing to do,” Beilfuss said. “We have to work together in this whole thing.”

The fee levels will be addressed by Council every six to eight years.

City Manager Mike Bennett said in his experience when communities adopt the full fee and tie it to an inflationary index, there’s less of a need to revisit the impact fee levels unless something out of the ordinary comes up.

“I think we’re where we need to be,” Herman said.