Greeley considers adding oil and gas development impact fee

GREELEY — The Greeley City Council will consider creating a new land-use category for oil and gas development that comes with its own impact fees early next year.

The proposal will be discussed at a city council meeting Jan. 6 as part of an overall plan to increase numerous development impact fees .

The proposed fee for oil and gas development would be $2,187 per wellhead.

The proposal would increase overall development impact fees by 8.6 percent in 2015.

The council had tentatively planned to hear the proposal Dec. 6 and vote on it Dec. 16, but delayed the hearing to give councilors more time to digest the report. The council is expected to vote on the proposal Jan. 20. If passed, the new fee structure would go into effect March 1.

The city is considering recommendations made by Austin, Texas-based consulting firm Duncan Associates. The firm was hired to analyze fees and costs associated with new developments.

The city council sets impact fees related to transportation, parks, trails, police, fire and drainage, and the city’s water and sewer board sets the fees for water and sewer.

The bulk of the increase will come from transportation, fire, water and sewer fees. Concerns were raised during a meeting with stakeholders in November because transportation fees were increasing by about 65 percent. Stakeholders were also concerned over the size of water and sewer plant investment fees and affordability of housing.

Fees for parks and police would decrease slightly under the proposal.

New developments currently are separated into eight land-use categories — single-family homes, multifamily homes, mobile home parks, retail/commercial, office, industrial, warehouse and pubic/institutions. Under the proposed fee structure, some land uses would pay higher total fees, while some would pay less.

Here is a list comparing fees charged in 2014 compared with recommendations for 2015 for each type of land use.

Single-family home, $22,355 to $24,278

Multifamily home per unit, $12,299 to $13,781

Retail/Commercial per 1,000 square feet, 10,528 to $7,933

Office, $6,430 to $6,782

Industrial per 1,000 square feet, $4,377 to $3,946

Warehouse per 1,000 square feet, $4,182 to $to $3,770

Public/institutional per 1,000 square feet, 6,430 to $4,818

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