Subject: Special Election April 10, 2007

Hi Neighbors:

The rumor mill is churning, and has it that the Chamber of Commerce is preparing a big media blitz to defeat the proposed impact fees in the upcoming special election. Their motivation, I hear, is that the fees are bad for business. Their arguments might well be something else. Please be aware, get the facts, inform yourselves, make up your own minds, and get out there and vote.

From my point of view, when you cut through all the rhetorical fog it boils down to one simple question: who should pay for the costs of new development--those who generate the costs, or all the rest of us who are sitting here quietly minding our own business?

One builder in town is a strong proponent of real estate transfer fees in place of impact fees. He feels that they are fairer because they spread the load over all real estate transfers, and are therefore lower. While true that the fees would be lower on a per house basis, I disagree that they would be fairer. If we were to sell our fifty year old house there would be zero impact on city services and facilities, and the buyer would be paying a fee to subsidize the new growth elsewhere in the city. Why should he be expected to do that?

Other folks have suggested that impact fees don't really address the problem of taxing only the new resident because they would affect current residents who build new homes elsewhere in the city, and would not affect the incoming new residents who buy their old ones. This argument misses the point that it is the new construction which causes the problem, not the resident status of the buyer or builder. The impact is caused by the new construction, and it is only fair, in my view, that the buyer of that new home pay the fee for that reason, without regard to how long he has lived in town. Conversely, there is no impact caused by buying an existing home, so it is only fair that the purchaser of that home not pay the fee, again without regard to how long that buyer has lived in town.

A fair number of builders and developers in town have warned that impact fees could well mean the death of affordable housing in Fayetteville, and I would not be surprised to see the Chamber raise this argument. While it is likely true that the City cannot waive or modify impact fees for low cost housing, there are other ways that the City can subsidize the development of low cost housing if it wishes to do so. Impact fees in such cases could be offset by voluntary cost sharing by the City on items which the builder/developer is now legally required to pay all of the costs for. The question here is whether the City is serious about low cost housing, not whether impact fees would rule out such housing.

These are just some of the arguments that you are likely to hear. Whatever, listen and think and vote. This is truly a strategic issue for our City, and therefore for our neighborhood.

Bill Moeller
Reprinted with permission of the author

It’s time Fayetteville woke up

You’ve just got to love the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce! After all, what other agency appears to be so dedicated to making their neighbors in the community finance the money generating activities of their big-business buddies and developers for the creation of that which the community at large does not want? What other agency has worked so hard to circumvent everything that most city residents have desired their city to be in recent years? With a special election set for April 10, it appears that our local chamber is at it again.

Apparently, the movers and shakers behind Fayetteville’s perpetual growth machine have embarked upon a media blitz against the proposed road impact fees upon which local citizens will be voting this April 10. Ordinary working citizens cannot afford financially to counter such a campaign; so, for the chamber brotherhood, the situation is a slam dunk.

The campaign is being directed by a resurrected group known as Citizens 4 Fayetteville. One look at the group’s Web site reveals that among those behind the campaign are the Arkansas Realtors Association and the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce. These groups are opposed to any impact fees and attempt to make the argument that the imposition of such fees would be a type of double taxation; this, in spite of the fact that the only ones paying impact fees will be first, the developers who are creating the need for more roads in the first place and later, those who can afford to buy into their developments and to whom the fees would likely be passed on by the developers.

As the situation currently stands, Fayetteville’s taxpayers are paying for much of the infrastructure necessitated by development. Back in September the voters approved a 0.25 cent tax increase and extension in order to fund bonds totaling $65.9 million for road improvements.

Such improvements would include the widening of Crossover Road; an action mandated by developers’ overwhelming of our current infrastructure. Who can forget the debate which raged several years ago over the need to build a new waste-water treatment plant on the west side of town? If voters hadn’t approved the tax increase for the project, of which the cost is now soaring at around $186 million, they would have been forced to pay a heavy monthly price for water and sewer service, compliments of our local developers. Here’s how one local resident put it: “ Who should pay for the costs of new development — those who generate the costs, or all the rest of us who are sitting here quietly minding our own business?” I believe it’s time that Fayetteville’s citizens wake up to the fact that for the most part, the local Chamber of Commerce and its affiliated groups view our city and its people as something to be exploited for financial gain. Their actions do not concur with the desires of local people who support real community and a pleasant atmosphere in which to live. Please vote in favor of impact fees on April 10.

Al Vick / Fayetteville
Published in the Northwest Arkansas Times 3/30/07

Vote FOR Fayetteville - Vote FOR road impact fees

If you’ve been stalled in traffic recently, you’ve experienced firsthand our best argument for why Fayetteville urgently needs road impact fees.

Daily congestion on College, Mission, Wedington, Huntsville, Crossover, Sixth and other streets is causing gridlock in Fayetteville. And because our Band-aid street improvements simply cannot keep pace with our city’s explosive growth, we are dodging ever-deeper potholes on our grossly overburdened roads. Despite the millions of extra dollars generated from the sales tax increase voted for in 2006, our hard-pressed planning staff is fighting a losing battle to keep traffic flowing freely and safely.

Appearing on this same page, you will find commentary from an organization against the proposed road impact fees. Last year, its members campaigned to increase and extend Fayetteville’s sales tax so the city could issue $ 68 million in road improvement bonds.

Those bonds are being paid off by all of us, and, of course, those who actually profit from new development would prefer this type of public cost-sharing to continue. Impact fees, however, would fall only on those creating additional impact on our community’s street system, and would not become an additional fee on all of us. When recently asked what would happen if the road impact fees fail to pass, Alderman Lioneld Jordan said: “We’d have to go back for more taxes. It’s real simple.”

Although those opposed to impact fees cite absolutely no evidence, they proclaim the fees are just “bad taxes” or “double taxation,” which would drive away new businesses and lower our tax base for schools. However, the city’s own exhaustive studies substantiate just the opposite — Fayetteville is more than holding its own in retail sales against some very stiff competition from our neighbors up north. Even with implementation of the proposed fees, we would still be about on par with Bentonville’s current fees, which have not caused growth to slow in that city.

Fayetteville continues to earn top spots in the national rankings as one of the best places to live and work. Our schools are second to none in the state, and clearly we are the envy of Northwest Arkansas and the nation. It is obvious, however, if we are to remain in the winner’s circle that developers need to pitch in their fair share of the expenses incurred by the city for their expanding private projects.

Over the past 10 years, Tim Conklin, Fayetteville’s director of Planning and Development Management, has often championed impact fees as an equitable way to pay for infrastructure improvements. On Monday night, in explaining the ballot drafted by his department, he told a neighborhood group:

• Impact fees are a one-time fee paid only by those who build and purchase new homes and businesses that create the need for new streets and infrastructure.
• The ballot proposes a fair impact fee that has been reduced to far less than originally calculated, but would still bring in approximately $3.4 million each year for street improvements.

Yet, the people against Fayetteville’s proposed road impact fees are running a high-dollar media campaign of radio, TV and newspaper ads and yard signs.

Below is an excerpt from a column written by Mike Henry appearing in the March 26, 2007, “Metro Messenger,” a newsletter published by the Metro Area Board of Realtors.

“Realtors from across the nation came to the aid of the Metro Board to fight an April 10 ballot issue asking Fayetteville voters to approve road impact fees. A coalition consisting of prominent business people, NWA home builders, developers, Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce and Realtors have joined forces under the banner of Citizens 4 Fayetteville (C4F). Realtors raised a total of $30,000 to fight against impact fees: $10,000 from the Arkansas Realtors Association, $5,000 from Metro Area Board of Realtors and $ 15,000 from the national association.”

The war chest of these organizations for what should be a local issue has topped more than $40,000, prompting one to ask why are these deep-pockets, some which are from outside our community, so interested in seeing Fayetteville vote down road impact fees?

Please, on April 10, listen carefully to Fayetteville’s professional planners and protect your own pocketbook by asking yourself why your hard-earned dollars should further subsidize new development?

It’s long past time for us to vote FOR road impact fees that can help equalize the costs to all of us in our community.

Guest Column by Vote FOR Fayetteville
Published in the Northwest Arkansas Times 4/8/07

Vote for impact fees

According to the Times front page article titled “ Rising Up,” published March 20, Citizens 4 Fayetteville has regrouped to oppose the impact fees proposed on the ballot for April 10 ’s special election.

Although the Times article describes the Citizens 4 Fayetteville membership as diverse, it provides no names or basis for said diversity. However, a glance at their press release indicates it is composed, or at least fronted, by people who profit most from development in Fayetteville.

Their full-page ad appears to be sponsored by the Fayetteville Economic Development Council and Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce, whose logos appear beneath the ad.

These very same groups and the mayor have vigorously supported sales tax increases for road improvements, which result in all local residents subsidizing those who make the big development bucks. Now they claim that the proposed impact fees are unfair “taxes” — although these fees would only be levied on new development, rather than existing home or commercial sales. They falsely label the impact fees “double taxation.”

However, it seems fairer to me that those of us in the Fayetteville community who do not profit from development should not shoulder the burdens imposed by those who are profiting most. That’s true “double-taxation” on citizens only, while the profit-makers pay nothing.

In reporting the mayor’s opposition to the impact fees, the same Times article notes: “Coody said he would be more likely to support a proposal that is less regressive.” So what is a fair way to pay for our streets and infrastructure? Which is more regressive — a sales tax that imposes the tax burden on all citizens, including those with the lowest incomes — or an impact fee paid only by those who actually profit by new developments? Our City Council and city staffers have worked long hours over several years to propose minimal impact fees, which are based on exhaustive studies and statistical formulas to determine the actual costs created by new developments. These fees are much like those used throughout Northwest Arkansas and across the country, designed to ensure that those creating the need for new roads and infrastructure also help to pay for them.

Those who argue against impact fees suggest that developers already build the roads. Yes, in their developments, but those roads connect to other collector and arterial roads that must be improved because of increased traffic coming from — you guessed it — the same developments.

Those opposed will turn out and vote. How about the rest of us?

Readers looking for more factual information can review a sample ballot at www.VoteforFayetteville.org, which will carry additional comprehensive information about the impact fees. An issue forum presenting both sides of the issue will also air as a “live” television program on the Government Channel (Ch. 16 ) at 6: 30 p. m. on April 4. Please get all the facts and Vote FOR the impact fees (Ordinance 4973 ) on April 10.

Beth Presley/ Fayetteville

CROSS CURRENTS : Who pays?

By Fran Alexander

“It makes a difference whose ox is gored.” — Martin Luther

My mother always asked, “Where is the money coming from?” and my dad sometimes answered her question with “Whose ox is being gored?” I am amazed as I grow older how many issues become clearer if I just cogitate on the answers I can find to those two questions.

Fayetteville citizens have again locked two sets of horns over one problem. One ox is huge, at least in its access to funding and organization. The other ox is financially tiny, but has dug in its heels, determined to hold its turf in this argument. And you, if you can manage to get yourself to the polls before or by April 10, will referee this head-butting contest. Your task will simply be to decide which one of these two oxen truly represents you. If you cannot decide or do not care, then for heaven’s sake, don’t vote. You will do more harm than good if you are uninformed or apathetic, no matter which side you choose.

According to both sides, road impact fees will impact you whether these fees are levied on new development (or redevelopment ) in town or not — but how you as a taxpayer will be financially affected is the real issue.

If this topic brings on yawns, just open your wallet and hand it over. Should you hesitate to do this, you might instead harness up your ox cart and begin to mentally fill it with radio, TV, and newspaper ads, and toss in yard signs on your way to the trash bin. Now with clutter deleted, you can begin thinking for yourself. If you want to research, or at least read the ballot, you can go to the city’s Web site at: accessfayetteville. com. If you want my opinion, keep reading.

When communities grow slowly, streets, sewers, water lines, schools, police departments, and fire stations evolve over time. There is a gradual accommodating and accounting of growth expenses that citizens adjust to as they build their town together. For example, when small streets have to carry more and more traffic, street departments widen, replace, or reroute them into becoming arterial or collector roads. Sewer lines are replaced and extended, water mains are repaired, and a city’s housekeeping list gets longer as its borders get wider. In other words, infrastructure happens. As within a family’s budget, infrastructure happens best when it is balanced with the resources a city has on hand to spend or can borrow for the shortest length of time at the lowest possible interest rate.

And, as in all families, there are times when costs get ahead of resources and some needs seem more urgent to some members than they do to others. Different priorities and values surface in periods of stress and different solutions get argued over. To make matters worse, fuel is poured on a family fire if there are more mouths to feed when time and money are short or simply not there. Ward 4 Alderman Lioneld Jordan, chair of the Streets Committee, has pointed out that consultants hired to advise the city years ago said we are $ 44 million behind in answering street needs. Jordan added that Fayetteville has grown from around 40,000 in 1980 to over 70,000 now. As more people continue to pour into town, the debt holes are getting wider and deeper. While last year’s transportation sales tax will help, it can only be stretched so far.

Those persons in town “against” having developers pay road impact fees on their projects believe that this additional cost to their investments will drive business away from town, thus decreasing the tax kitty we draw from for community needs. Those “for” the use of impact fees “to offset costs to the city of Fayetteville taxpayers that are reasonably attributable to providing necessary capacity improvements to collector or arterial streets to serve new development” (from the ballot ) see the fees as a one-time cost of doing private business that should be paid by those who impact the city’s systems.

Once again we are faced with whether we can or should have a separation of business and government. Business says it feeds government, but some citizens feel that taxpayers often wind up arbitrarily subsidizing certain businesses and thereby take on part of their risk of success or failure. When the tax coffers are gambled for the benefit of a few, who do not have to prove or provide any measure of guarantee that their projects will in turn benefit the community as a whole, why shouldn’t citizens raise red flags?

There is a great deal of alarm being sounded that impact fees are “double taxation” when they are neither. They are a one-time fee, not a tax, on a particular project and, contrary to some misleading commentary fanning fear flames, “enlargement of a single family home will not require any impact fee.” (Ballot wording.)

Interestingly, the most ignored, yet glaring, detail in all the handwringing over these impact fees is that after developers finish building the roads which serve their houses and businesses within their properties, these thoroughfares then become the public’s responsibility forever after anyway! In other words, developers pay for the birth, but we all pay for the raising and maintenance of their street offspring. That many of us do not also want to pay what should be their original hook-up impact to the city street system hardly seems “regressive” (our flip-flopping mayor’s word-of-theday ). What’s next, paying for their architects and engineers who create their visions?

Since the city has not bothered with the task of educating the citizenry for this election, a group of people trying to bring information to the public organized a discussion forum last week, which has been playing on the government channel (16). Their Web site, voteforfayetteville.org, also contains reference resources and video clips about impact fees.

It’s election time tomorrow. Do you know where your ox is? Does he seem to have a pain in his side?