HomeMy WebLinkAboutConstituent Letter - Read Before Packet - 7/9/2013 - Letter From David L. May, Fort Collins Area Chamber Of Commerce, Re: Capital Improvements Expansion Fee UpdatesJune 9, 2013
Fort Collins City Council
300 LaPorte Ave.
Fort Collins, CO 80521
Dear Mayor Weitkunat, Mayor Pro Tem Horak, and Council Members Campana, Cunniff,
Overbeck, Poppaw and Troxell;
As you prepare to discuss Capital Improvements Expansion Fee Updates at your meeting on July
9, we wanted to share our perspective with you. The Chamber, as noted in our Where We Stand
document, is supportive of "a reasonable level of taxes and fees for essential public services
assuming that they are fair and reasonable and do not discourage business investment in Fort
Collins."
While we appreciate the methodology and calculations included in the update to the fees, we are
very concerned about the dramatic increases proposed to the Commercial and Industrial land use
types and their impact on the competitive position of Fort Collins. Especially since this
conversation is being taken out of context to all other fees placed on business development in the
community.
We encourage the Council to delay action on this issue until a comprehensive review of all fees
can be undertaken to allow Council to understand the real impact of increased fees. Included in
that review must be a competitive analysis of fees imposed by other communities on projects as
well as case studies, using real numbers to show the impact of fee increases on the viability of
projects. We have requested both the competitive analysis and the case studies previously, but
neither are included in the information packet presented to you. As we understand the schedule,
both analyses are slated as projects for 2014.
If the Council feels they must implement the new fees, we do encourage a phased approach over
time. While we appreciate that there was a calculation error in the original design of the 1996
fees, forcing the business community to absorb that error in a single step seems egregious and
unnecessary.
Sincerely,
Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce
David L. May
President & CEO
cc: Darin Atteberry
Mike Beckstead
Jessica Ping-Small