I agree with Council members Cody Kennedy, & Scott Beilfuss regarding the caution of raising the impact fees on Transportation & Parks & Recreation at a level at the expense of affordable single family homes. The builders and developers of our community are the experts in reality and MUST BE LISTENED TO regarding their concerns as to what the Market will bare,. As published in the Business times (December 24-January 8,2025)-, “Total Impact of Fee Increases”, ” The 10 year capital plan shows capital projects for Engineering and Transportation would total $212,139,300 & Parks & Recreation projects would total $369,,744,393.
I believe that the constituents of the City of Grand Junction, would place transportationBeilfuss said, “What I’m getting at is after conversations with the builders and developers about costs, everything is higher here because we are isolated. There’s a lot of pushback on the community’s fees. So, I’m not sure that 800 units a year is realistic.
For further explanation, Beilfuss responded, “If we’re not building a much-increased number of single-family affordable housing, we’re not drawing businesses here, we’re not drawing workers here, we’re not growing. … I think we have to be very careful with fees. I don’t know if there’s other places to look for money. We have so little from property taxes that I’m sure other cities have a lot more from that area, so that shifts everything to fees.
Council member Dennis Simpson, said, “We never look for decreasing expenditures without affecting services, and I think that is something we could look at.” He further emphasized, “
When asked about the 10-year capital project budget, Simpson noted only one of the next five years is projected to have expenditures lower than revenue.”
The City and our new City Manager should look to adjustments in the current budget, in particularly cuts of Parks & Recreation over Transportation. It is a real balancing act , raising Impact fees higher & higher that the housing market severely downturns, with a cause and effect is, a decreasing of overall economic growth resulting in decreased tax revenues for capital projects.
.Dr.George Gatseos II,. Former City of Grand Junction, Planning Commissioner. (2014 -2021)