The city opposes any action in the next legislative session to abolish or restrict impact fees assessed to new development.
The City Council and city staff plan to meet with state legislators to express concerns over proposals to abolish the fees."We depend on these (impact fees) to support new development," said Gary Crane, Layton City attorney.
Crane and City Manager Alex Jensen believe if impact fees are abolished or restricted, property taxes will likely have to be increased to make up the shortfall.
According to finance director Steve Ashby, city revenues from impact fees represent almost 6 percent of all income.
"That's a significant amount," Ashby said. He said last year Layton received about $704,000 in traffic impact fees, $190,000 in rec-reation/park fees and $179,000 in water impact fees.
Ashby said the traffic fee, the city's newest impact fee, only recently reached the maximum amount being assessed to new development.
Rep. Kevin Garn, R-Layton, wants to stop the trend of impact fees. He believes home ownership is part of the American dream and that impact fees are taking that dream.
Mayor Jerry Stevenson said it is the city's philosophy that new development should pay fees to ease the impact of traffic congestion and other problems it creates.
Jensen said if impact fees are halted, the city will either have to tax all citizens to pay for the impact of new growth or shut down development.