Opinion ID: 2632681
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: impact fees

Text: ¶ 2 Both parties ask this court to determine whether the Water District's water availability fee is an impact fee under the Impact Fees Act, Utah Code Ann. §§ 11-36-101 to -501 (2003). That Act defines an impact fee as a payment of money imposed upon development activity as a condition of development approval. Id. § 11-36-102(7)(a). `Development activity' means any construction or expansion of a building, structure, or use, any change in use of a building or structure, or any changes in the use of land that creates additional demand and need for public facilities. [1] Id. § 11-36-102(3). Development approval is defined as any written authorization from a local political subdivision [ [2] ] that authorizes the commencement of development activity. Id. § 11-36-102(4). ¶ 3 Some years prior to the passage of the Impact Fees Act, we stated that [i]mpact fees are generally defined as charges levied by local governments against new development in order to generate revenue for capital funding necessitated by the new development. Salt Lake County v. Bd. of Educ., 808 P.2d 1056, 1058 (Utah 1991) (internal quotations omitted). [3] Impact fees, we explained, are a species of real estate development exactions usually imposed prior to the issuance of a building permit or zoning/subdivision approval. Id. (internal quotations omitted). We also listed some key definitional elements of impact fees, indicating that such fees are generally imposed pursuant to local government powers to regulate new growth and development and provide for adequate public facilities and services, are levied to fund large-scale, off-site public facilities and services necessary to serve new development, and are generally in an amount which is proportionate to the need for the public facilities generated by new development. Id. at 1058-59. ¶ 4 The regulations governing impact fees contemplate that if an entity with the power to permit or prevent certain development activities imposes a fee as a condition of proceeding with development in order to fund public facilities and services that will be necessitated by the development, that entity must justify the imposition of the fee. For example, the Impact Fees Act requires an entity imposing an impact fee to prepare a capital facilities plan identifying the demands placed upon existing public facilities by new development activity and the proposed means by which the local political subdivision will meet those demands. Utah Code Ann. § 11-36-201(2)(b)(i)-(ii). In addition, [e]ach local political subdivision imposing impact fees [must] prepare a written analysis of each impact fee that, among other things, must demonstrate the degree of impact on system improvements and proportion of cost attributed to new development activity, and must also identify how the fee was calculated. Id. § 11-36-201(5)(a)(i)-(iv). The Impact Fees Act also contains various other requirements governing the establishment, accounting, and process for challenging the validity of impact fees. See id. §§ 11-36-202 to -401.