THE HOME BUILDER
January 2024
Page Two
David Lehde Director of Government Affairs Builders and Developers Should Remain Aware of Pending Fee Changes in Dallas and Denton The HomeFront Government Affairs News and Info The Dallas Builders Associa-
available to post the appropriate fees and release the permit. Members with questions regard - ing these advocacy matters can contact the Director of Government Affairs .
increases that would add thousands of dollars to the cost of construction for both single-family and multifam- ily homes. The draft ordinance, that was brought before the city council on Dec. 13, actually saw many of those proposed fees reduced from the ver- sion that was presented in the fee study. Still, due to concerns regarding the assumptions made in the study, the possible impact on housing af- fordability, and the need to have more stakeholder impact after there has been enough time to review and provide analysis of the proposed fees, Dallas BA and fellow stakeholders urged the city council to delay their vote. Citing many of the same concerns as industry stakeholders, the city council postponed action on the item until their Jan. 24 meeting. Their decision on the fees will move quickly at that point with the new schedule likely going into effect at the start of February. Dallas BA continues to monitor cities for possible moves to four-day work weeks. Dallas BA opposed such a move in the City of Celina. However, the council moved to have the city closed on Fridays. Builders in Celina are encouraged to contact Dallas BA should they run into delays. In other cities that have moved to a four-day operation schedule, the resulting problems that occur are common. The builder can often lose three or more days on a project that completes tasks on Thursday and is ready to be called in for inspection. As inspectors become overloaded due to the loss of the Friday workday, they can be forced to roll inspections over to the next week, if not cancel the inspection altogether. Weather delays
exacerbate this matter. As it relates to the administrative process, even when a city has an online permit application, if the notification of approval comes on a Friday, there could be no staff
tion recently weighed in, again, on possible fee increases in both Denton and Dallas. In Denton, the long ongoing discussion on roadway impact fees is heading towards a conclusion and recent City Council instruction is hinting that Dallas BA’s advocacy on the issue may be getting through. On December 12, city council members heard an updated recommendation from city staff regarding what the proposed impact fees could be per home. During a council work session, the majority instruction was to assess the roadway impact fee at 20% of the maximum allowable fee. Key to the discussion is the fact that, due to the updated impact fee study, the maximum roadway fee from which the assessment per home is de- rived, has doubled. What had been a city-wide average of $9,808 per home jumped to $20,538. With discussions at city hall including the idea of as- sessing the roadway fee at 50% of the maximum, or even higher, the possible outcome per home was alarming. With the current roadway impact fee, 20% equates to around $2,000 per home. The city council’s instruction of assessing the fee at 20%, even though doubling the current assessed fee, could protect builders and developers from facing an additional $6,000 more in roadway impact fees per home. It will all depend on the final council vote expected sometime in January. In the City of Dallas, the recent study related to development and building permits, inspection and con- tractor fees raised the voices of stake- holders, including the Dallas Builders Association. The study proposed fee
The Home Builder is published monthly by the Dallas Builders Association at 5816 W. Plano Pkwy., Plano, Texas 75093. Telephone 972-931-4840. BARCIE VILCHES , Editor
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