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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOUNCIL - AGENDA ITEM - 02/15/2011 - RESOLUTION 20110-013 RELATING TO THE REVIEW PROCES DATE: February 15, 2011 AGENDA ITEM SUMMARY STAFF: Darin Atteberry _ T COLLINS CITY COUNCIL Mike Freeman Resolution 20110-013 Relating To The Review Process For City Fees. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY At the December 21, 2010 City Council meeting, Council considered on Second Reading, Ordinance No. 125, 2010 amending the City Code to increase the amounts of Capital Improvement Expansion Fees to reflect changes in inflation. At that time,City Council had questions about how this action related to Resolution 2006-113,which provides a process for implementing City fee increases. City Council deferred taking action on Second Reading and requested that information be brought back regarding the scope of Resolution 2006-113. After that information was provided, Council adopted Ordinance No. 125, 2010, on January 4, 2011. Because there is some remaining uncertainty concerning the intended scope of Resolution 2006-113,this Resolution stays application of Resolution 2006-113 until Council and City staff can revisit the fee review process. BACKGROUND / DISCUSSION Resolution 2006-113 was developed and adopted to provide guidance to City staff when fee increases(widely defined in the Resolution)were being considered. Specifically, the ordinance calls for staff to update fees no less than every two years. In addition, the staff shall ensure that the fee covers the entire cost of the operation while simultaneously ensuring that costs that are not appropriate or costs that arise from inefficiencies are also addressed. There was some question about how Resolution 2006-113 relates to the myriad of other fees(i.e.,outside of fees that are defined by ordinance), specifically those administrative fees established by the City Manager in accordance with Section 7.5-1 of the City Code, that are included in the City budget. City staff believes that it would be best to stay application of Resolution 2006-113 until such time as Council can provide some clarification as to its intent for a fee review process.. STAFF RECOMMENDATION Staff recommends adoption of the Resolution. ATTACHMENTS 1. Resolution 2006-113 ATTACHMENT 1 RESOLUTION 2006-113 OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FORT COLLINS PROVIDING A PROCESS FOR IMPLEMENTING CITY FEE INCREASES WHEREAS,the City of Fort Collins imposes various fees upon members of the community for a variety of purposes; and WHEREAS, these fees include capital improvement expansion fees, user fees,permit fees and others; and WHEREAS,the amount of these fees is established in the City Code at a level sufficient to defray all or a portion of the cost of providing specific City infrastructure and services to the fee payers; and WHEREAS,the obligation to pay these fees can have an adverse effect on the cost of living in the City; and WHEREAS, City Council wishes to ensure that the amount of these fees is increased only after the City has implemented appropriate efficiencies to control the costs defrayed by the fees;and WHEREAS, the amount of these fees should also take into consideration fees charged by other Front Range cities for similar purposes,to help evaluate whether the City fees are reasonable. NOW,THEREFORE,BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FORT COLLINS as follows: Section 1. That except as maybe otherwise specifically provided in the City Code,each fee imposed by the City will be reviewed by City staff no less frequently than every twenty-four(24) months,which review shall occur in conjunction with the preparation of the City's biennial budget. Section 2. That the overall purpose of such review shall be to evaluate whether the amount of each fee appropriately covers the costs actually incurred by the City in providing the infrastructure or services funded by the fee without unduly burdening the fee payer. Section 3. That staff shall also ensure, as a part of such review,that appropriate efforts have been made by the City to control any escalating costs that might cause fees to increase by improving efficiencies and work methods. Section 4. That,based upon such review,the City Manager will recommend to the City Council any changes in fee amounts that the City Manager may deem appropriate, taking into consideration the amount of fees imposed by other Front Range cities for similar purposes. Passed and adopted at a regular meeting of the Co it of the City of Fort Collins this 7th day of November, A.D. 2006. May ATTEST: City Cierk e it i RESOLUTION 2011-013 OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FORT COLLINS RELATING TO THE REVIEW PROCESS FOR CITY FEES WHEREAS, the City has established various kinds of fees, the purpose of which is to apportion a fair share of the cost of providing City services and infrastructure among the persons who create the need for, or most directly benefit from, those services and infrastructure; and WHEREAS, in accordance with Section 7.5-1 of the City Code, some of these fees are established administratively by the City Manager; and WHEREAS,the City's capital improvement expansion fees,which are imposed to offset the costs of infrastructure made necessary by the construction of development projects in the City, are established in Chapter 7.5, Article II of the City Code; and WHEREAS, increases to the capital improvement expansion fees are, by the City Code or other ordinances of the City, to be made in accordance with a specific inflation index; WHEREAS, Resolution 2006-113 (the "Resolution") adopted by the City Council on November 7, 2006, establishes criteria for reviewing increases in City fees; and WHEREAS, while the Resolution makes reference to a variety of fees, the criteria it establishes for increasing fee amounts apply only to the administrative fees established under Article I, Section 7.5 of the City Code, rather than the capital improvement expansion fees established elsewhere in Section 7.5; and WHEREAS, it is not clear that this was the intended purpose of the Resolution; and WHEREAS, in accordance with the requirements of Section 7.5-1 and Section 7.5-2 of the City Code,the City Manager has determined that changes to certain administrative fees are necessary and should be adopted as soon as possible to adequately defray the costs of certain City services for fiscal year 2011 and beyond; and WHEREAS, because of the uncertainty concerning the scope of the Resolution, the City Manager has recommended holding in abeyance the application of the Resolution in order to allow the City Manager to make the changes to the amounts of the various administrative fees in a timely fashion, and to allow City staff and the City Council to revisit the fee review process, including the factors to be considered in periodically adjusting the amounts of City fees. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FORT COLLINS as follows: Section 1. That the City Manager may immediately proceed with setting the administrative fees allowed under Section 7.5-1 of the City Code in accordance with the criteria established in Section 7.5-2 of the City Code, notwithstanding Resolution 2006-113. Section 2. That the application of Resolution 2006-113 is hereby stayed until such time as City staff and the City Council revisit the intended scope and purpose of the fee review process contained therein and the City Council takes further action to clarify its scope and intent. Passed and adopted at a regular meeting of the Council of the City of Fort Collins this 15th day of February A.D. 2011. Mayor ATTEST: City Clerk