DEPARTMENT: Center City Development & Operations Department
DEPARTMENT HEAD: John Jacks
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: City-Wide
SUBJECT: Administrative changes to the allocation of SAWS waivers through the ICRIP Fee Waiver Program
SUMMARY:
This is a briefing on the proposed administrative changes to the allocation of SAWS fee waivers under the Inner City Reinvestment Infill Policy (ICRIP) Fee Waiver Program.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
In an effort to encourage infill development, the ICRIP Fee Waiver Program waives certain City development fees for eligible development projects as well as SAWS impact fees up to 1% of the total project cost. The SAWS impact fee waivers serve the ICRIP Fee Waiver Program, the Center City Housing Incentive Policy (CCHIP), and other economic development initiatives. Currently, SAWS waivers are issued through the ICRIP Fee Waiver Program on a first come, first served basis until funds are exhausted, at which time staff closes the program for the remaining fiscal year. Due to increased development activity within the program area in recent years, requests for SAWS waivers have begun to far exceed the available budget.
On October 1, 2016, the SAWS fee waiver program reopened to new funding requests for fiscal year 2017. Demand for waivers this year is at an all-time high. As such, staff closed the program to new SAWS waiver requests on October 21 for the remaining fiscal year. As of October 22, the total eligible demand for SAWS waivers was $1.8 million of the $3.8 million in overall requests from 157 eligible applications. However, there are only $1 million in SAWS waivers available for the ICRIP Fee Waiver Program this fiscal year, which is enough to fund 53% of the total eligible demand.
ISSUE:
Due to the growing demand for SAWS impact fee waivers, staff is proposing administrative changes to more strategically allocate SAWS waivers including prioritizing certain types of development, introducing a wait-list, and limiting ...
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