The Southern Nevada Home Builders Association's board of directors unanimously voted Tuesday to lobby the 2001 Legislature to allow cities and counties to charge impact fees for the construction of parks, police and fire stations.
Home builders seem an unlikely proponent of new fees.
But the influential, approximately 800-member trade group views a uniform charge for new infrastructure as an alternative to what officials and members call a patchwork of taxes and development charges that unfairly burdens large residential developers. What's happened is the builders are taking steps to get over their latent distrust of the system. Doppe's Carina Corp. builds about 200 homes a year. He said the prospect of higher costs is offset by the benefits of the impact fee law, which narrowly focuses fee revenues in the area they are charged and requires local governments to develop stringent, reliable capital improvement plans. State law currently allows local governments to impose fees on new residential, commercial and industrial projects to pay for nearby road, sewer and water projects, based on demands that new workers and residents are expected to place on the infrastructure.