Critics of Naperville’s controversial road-impact fees are warning city officials that proposals to charge even more to build in the community will push developers to cheaper pastures.
Some who addressed the Naperville Transportation Management Advisory Committee at a recent public hearing, including City Council member Sam Macrane, said the fee’s impact already is apparent in the pattern of office construction in the western suburbs.
In a region that has seen cranes rise above office construction sites all along the East-West Tollway corridor in the last few years, Naperville only now is beginning to see even a trickle of requests for new buildings, speakers said.
Kent Huffman, executive vice president of the Northern Illinois Home Builders Association, which sued Naperville over road-impact fees last year, called the proposed fees “simply exorbitant.” He said Naperville should realize that the city’s lack of significant office construction this decade is a direct result of the fees.
“And I am convinced, if you increase the fees as proposed, residential development will follow this trend and move elsewhere,” Huffman said.
City staff members have said that building plans they are reviewing for a Diehl Road property near the East-West Tollway would be the first significant office development in the city since 1989. Naperville’s first road-impact fees were imposed in 1988.
At least one member of the committee said he agreed with those who argued that road-impact fees are curbing office growth in the city. Acting committee Chairman Paul Lehman cited two office parks that sit across from each other on Illinois Highway 59 near Jefferson Avenue, one in Aurora and the other in Naperville.
Lehman said the Aurora development has seen several recent building projects, while the Naperville park seems to have stagnated.
“Our impact fees have had a dramatic effect on non-residential growth,” Lehman said.
But Michael Roth, Naperville city attorney and a committee member, urged the panel not to debate the city’s economic policies. He said the committee should stick to its task and examine the recalculation of the fees.
The committee began the public hearing by offering a list of more than $100 million worth of growth-related road projects that Naperville could face over the next 20 years. Under the plan, developers would be asked to pay for more than 70 percent of those costs through road-impact fees, based on the estimated number of new car trips a particular project might generate.
Huffman and others who testified called the proposal unfair, saying the road-impact fees for a new single-family home already are six times higher than they were in 1988.
Naperville’s fees require builders to pay $1,665 for a single-family home, $2,223 for every 1,000 square feet in a commercial project and $3,651 for every 1,000 square feet in an office development.
If the committee recommends a fee structure similar to the current setup, charges would rise to $1,907 for a single-family home and to $2,380 for every 1,000 square feet of a commercial building. Fees for office construction would dip.
The city last adjusted its road-impact fees in January 1996, raising the fee for each single-family home in a development to $1,655 from $792. Other fees went up even more dramatically. The adjustments prompted legal action in early 1997 by the home builders association. That case still is pending.
The city reacted by issuing a moratorium last year on building projects that will have an impact on roads. To get a city permit, developers now must sign a waiver promising to pay what would be required by the city ordinance, without making future claims.
