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 Program Guidelines
SUMMARY:
This Ordinance approves amendments to the ICRIP Fee Waiver Program Guidelines.
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).
To be eligible, projects must be in the ICRIP program area and NOT be an excluded project.
ISSUE:
In 2014, an audit of the fee waiver program was conducted and produced positive findings with a few recommended improvements for clarity and efficiency. Most of those recommendations have been implemented into the business process of administering the fee waivers, but some require changes to the program guidelines which are the subject of this item.
As such, staff is proposing three substantive amendments to the program:
1) Consolidating the City Fee Waiver Program Guidelines and the SAWS Impact Fee Waiver Program Guidelines into one document;
2) Applying the boundary exceptions equally for both City and SAWS waivers; and,
3) Adding a zoning qualification to the eligibility standards and removing the retail exclusion.
Amendment #1: Consolidation
Currently, fee waiver incentives have been administered under the ICRIP policy with separate, but larg...
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