The city of Aurora and East Aurora School District are going after impact fees from the Hometown Subdivision that were never collected.
The fees should have been collected back in 2000, after the city passed an ordinance providing for the collection of impact fees for school districts. But the city and East Aurora School District never signed the necessary intergovernmental agreement to collect the tax.
Tuesday, the Aurora City Council Finance Committee recommended the city enter into an agreement with East Aurora to collect the tax. Bernie Weiler, attorney for East Aurora, said the impact fees were provided for in the Hometown annexation agreement.
“This just puts in place what should have been in place,” he said.
At a March 20 East Aurora school board meeting, board members approved their end of the agreement with the city. School board President Annette Johnson characterized the move as cleaning up “sloppy” conduct from past boards.
Weiler said the property developer, Bigelow Homes, had agreed to pay impact fees.
Bigelow is set to open another Hometown unit soon, and Weiler said the agreement between the city and East would cover that, as well as any other developments that come along.
Officials said they are unsure yet just how much money it would be, because it is based on the number of bedrooms in a house, as well as its construction value. All that has to be figured out for the entire development, Weiler said. But he added the amount of money “is not insubstantial.”
“There’s a lot of units out there,” he said.
Impact fees are separate from the land-cash donation ordinance fees. The land-cash ordinance mandates that developers contribute land, or cash instead of land, for school and park sites. The amount is negotiated as part of the annexation agreement, based on a formula in a city ordinance.
Impact fees also are negotiated, but they are a one-time fee designed to pay for the effect a development has on school operations. So, the money is not for land, it can be used for school operations such as teachers and resources.
