DEPARTMENT: Center City Development and Operations Department
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Lori Houston
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: City-Wide
SUBJECT:
Amendments to the Inner City Reinvestment and Infill Policy (ICRIP) Fee Waiver Guidelines
SUMMARY:
This item approves the amended guidelines for the ICRIP Fee Waiver Program.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
The Inner City Reinvestment and Infill Policy (ICRIP) was adopted in 2010 as a component of the Strategic Plan for Community Development. The ICRIP establishes the inner city and other areas as priorities for reinvestment, and makes a range of City incentives available for eligible projects in these areas, including fee waivers.
Eligible projects under the policy can receive a waiver of City development fees and/or SAWS water and sewer impact fees. In FY2015, City Council appropriated $1.5 million for City development fees waivers, and SAWS allocated $3 million in fee waiver credits (assessed but non-collected impact fees).
ISSUE:
To date, fee waiver incentives have been administered under the ICRIP policy with separate, but largely identical, guidelines for City fee waivers and SAWS fee waivers. This has led to some confusion for both the public and for other City staff in administering the incentives. With this action, the guidelines will be combined and streamlined to be more effective for auditing and administrative purposes, as well as to be more understandable for the general public.
This amendment also makes changes to the program's eligibility standards. Currently, projects are deemed eligible based on their finished use. The current policy excludes a range of uses including nightclubs, pawn shops, garages, gas stations, and most retail shops. Any given neighborhood within the ICRIP, however, carries its own unique economic circumstances and some of these uses may be considered acceptable and even encouraged by the local community. Therefore, staff is recommending changing the program eligibility to be based on specific parcel zoning rather than a policy-wide exclusions list. This transfers the determination of appropriateness from a City staff person to an area zoning plan that has been adopted by local neighborhoods. Consequently, if a parcel is appropriately-zoned for the intended use and is within the ICRIP boundaries, then the project would be eligible for a fee waiver, subject to funding availability.
Some projects would still remain ineligible despite zoning such as sexually-oriented businesses, hotels and motels, liquor stores, etc. A full list of exclusions is included as Attachment I - Proposed Guidelines as Amended.
ALTERNATIVES:
The Committee may elect to deny or revise the program guidelines, as amended.
FISCAL IMPACT:
This item has no fiscal impact.
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends approval of the Amended ICRIP Fee Waiver Program Guidelines and further recommendation to City Council for adoption. Approval of these amendments would improve the program's functionality and accountability and tailor it for the local needs of ICRIP area neighborhoods.