Windham Town Council revises open space impact fees

 By Ed Pierce

The Town of Windham will increase open space impact fees following a unanimous vote taken by the Windham Town Council on Tuesday evening.

The Windham Town Council has revised open
space impact fees as costs for land in the area
for preservation continue to rise significantly.
PHOTO BY ED PIERCE  
  

State statutes give municipalities the authority to impose impact fees to all development that creates an impact on capital improvements for which the fee has been established. The fee must be proportional to a new development’s share of the improvement, and the development upon which a fee is assessed must reasonably benefit from the improvement.

Windham Planning Director Amanda Lessard told councilors that an impact fee increase is necessary because the cost to purchase land in the area has skyrocketed in the past few years.

Lessard said that in reviewing more recent land sale data, the open space impact fee methodology used by the town did not reflect current market rate land values and that the new fees will be calculated based on a per capita basis and then assessed based on the expected occupancy levels of various types of residential housing.

Under the change in the cost to expand publicly accessible open space, the open space impact fee is proposed to double, where under the range of occupancies a new single-family home would be assessed between $608 and $1,163 as an open space impact fee.

According to Lessard, the open space impact fee schedule fits with the goals and objectives of the town’s Comprehensive Plan, including creating a source of funding for the purchase of development rights of land as opportunities are presented to the community.

Windham’s 2022 Open Space Master Plan identifies priorities for acquiring new open space properties and the open space impact fee proposal was recommended by the town’s Planning Board following a public hearing and discussion earlier this month.

Impact fees collected by Windham will be used to expand the publicly owned open space in the community in the future to serve the needs of a growing population. As such, the town will use the revenue generated from the open space impact fee to acquire land or easements, including conservation easements, and improve conservation land to expand the supply of open space available for community use as set forth in the Comprehensive Plan and other studies of priorities for open space preservation.

As the community grows and develops, Lessard said that more preserved open space will be needed that is available to the public.

In a memo to the council and town manager, Lessard outlined that the town's adopted Comprehensive Plan identifies the need to invest in rural Windham to keep it rural and the plan proposes creating a Land for Windham's Future program that would acquire and preserve open space funded in part by impact fees.

Currently, the supply of about 48 acres of town-owned open space per 1,000 residents in 2019 is adequate for current needs, Lessard said. But as Windham grows, the ratio of open space per capita will need to be maintained and serves as the basis for the open space impact fee.

Any residential development activity in Windham should pay an impact fee based upon the expected population of the project considering typical occupancy rates and that includes single-family homes that are not part of a subdivision, conversions of non-residential buildings to residential use, and modifications to existing buildings that increase the number of dwelling units.

The new fee structure requires that the open space impact fee shall be the adjusted per capita cost of providing additional open space as determined in Windham’s Open Space Impact Fee Methodology calculations created in 2019 and revised in March, multiplied by the anticipated number of residents in the new unit.

The type of units and the typical occupancy of those types of units include single-family homes of 2 or fewer bedrooms; 3 bedrooms; 4 or more bedrooms; multifamily housing or accessory apartments such as 1-bedroom units, 2 bedrooms, or 3 or more bedrooms; Mobile homes in a mobile home park consisting of 1 bedroom; 2 bedrooms; or 3 or more bedrooms.

Under the new schedule, the impact fee shall remain in effect until July 1, 2035, and could be reviewed every three years if needed by the Windham Town Council.

The new fee structure places Windham in the middle of similar impact fee schedules that are charged by neighboring communities. <