Orem officials, positioning themselves to impose an impact fee for parks, looked at a capital facilities plan this week that will eventually add $457 to the price of each new home in the community.
Impact Fee Alternative II would provide a parks standard of five acres of community park space for each 3,500 units of the population.That would bring the amount of community park acreage to 173 acres by the year 2016 for a population of 121,200. City Manager Michael Dyal said that scenario is the most comfortable, given Orem's needs.
Currently, Orem has approximately 83,000 people and 21,895 dwelling units. Another 10,000 dwelling units will require 54 more acres of park space at a total cost of $4,573,635. That, according to Jerry Ortiz, director of recreation and parks for Orem, justifies imposition of a parks impact fee under the new legislation.If the city went with a cheaper scenario, Alternative III, the fee would be $361 per dwelling but the acreage accumulated by 2016 would only be 152 acres. It would also take longer to finish scheduled projects.
The most expensive alternative would charge new homebuyers $475 each and up total acreage to 202 acres by 2016.
Orem currently has 79 acres developed as parks, said Ortiz. The city owns 108 more acres that can be developed.
Under the capital facilities plan for Alternative II, the city would develop three major community parks; Lakeside Park (25 acres), Canyon Park (22 acres), and Nielsen's Grove (21 acres). Lakeside Park costs are projected to be $800,000. Canyon Park's tab would be $3.75 million and Nielsen's Grove, $1.3 million.
Ortiz said the city must tie itself to certain projects in order to impose the impact fee but does not have to lock itself into a timeline.
"It's a lot more palatable to correct a deficit before we assess an impact fee to do new projects," he suggested.
Neighborhood parks, soccer fields, swimming pools and tennis courts also figure in the picture, especially if there are less than an accepted standard amount.
Currently there are 42.28 acres in neighborhood parks, two acres of soccer fields with three more under construction, a foot of swimming pool space for each seven residents and 25 tennis courts.
The council set a public hearing for Aug. 13 to discuss setting an impact fee.
Councilman Timothy Christian- sen said the citizens committee that studied the city's needs favored an impact fee as the fairest way to collect from the broadest base.
Councilman David Palfreyman said the city is taking a proactive approach in planning for the future. "I like that," he said.
Scott Ward, speaking for the capital facilities plan along with Ortiz, said cities that are not developing a capital facilities plan to back up their assessments of impact fees are courting trouble.