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Chapter 42
DEVELOPMENT IMPACT FEES
GENERAL REFERENCES
Planning and Zoning Commissions —
See Ch. 20.
Subdivision of land — See Ch. 94.
Zoning — See Ch. 107.
§ 42-1.
Definitions.
As used in this chapter, the following
words and terms shall have the following meanings, unless another
meaning is plainly intended:
BUILDING PERMIT — The permit required by
the Town of Berlin for newly constructed buildings, structures and
additions.
CAPITAL BUDGET — A separate budget
dedicated to financing capital improvements.
CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS — Any and/or all of
the following and including acquisition of land, construction,
improvements, equipping and installing of same and which facilities are
identified in the capital improvements plan to be financed by the
imposition of an impact fee:
- Parks and recreational facilities.
- Water treatment and distribution facilities.
- Public safety facilities.
- Public works facilities.
- Other facilities, the costs of which may be substantially
attributed to new development.
COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT — Any development
resulting in newly constructed commercial units.
COSTS — The monetary value of a capital
project to include administrative, legal, planning, engineering and
construction costs.
DEVELOPMENT — Activity that requires
issuance of a building permit for newly constructed buildings.
IMPACT FEE — Any charge, fee or
assessment levied as a condition of issuance of a building permit when
any portion of the revenues collected is intended to fund any portion
of the costs of capital improvements on any public facilities.
RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT — Any development
resulting in newly constructed residential units.
SITE — The land on which development
takes place.
TOWN — The Town of Berlin.
ZONING DISTRICTS — Those areas designated
in the Zoning Ordinance as being reserved for specific land uses,
subject to development and use regulations specified in the ordinance.
ZONING ORDINANCE — The official adopted
Zoning Map and text regulating all the development and land use in the
Town of Berlin, State of Maryland.
§ 42-2.
Applicability of fee.
This chapter shall be uniformly
applicable to development that occurs within or is annexed into the
boundaries of the Town.
§ 42-3.
Imposition of fee.
- From and after the effective date of this chapter, when an
application is filed with the Town for a newly constructed building or
structure requiring the issuance of a building permit by the Town of
Berlin, an impact fee is hereby levied and imposed on the real property
on which the building or structure is or is to be located.
- From and after the effective date of this chapter, when
previously developed property is annexed into the Town, an impact fee
will be imposed for any lot on which there is a dwelling at the time
the annexation resolution is adopted by the Mayor and Council. Said fee
shall be paid as may be provided for in the resolution annexing the
property.
- Impact fees shall not exceed the cost of providing capital
improvements for which need is reasonably attributable to those
developments or newly annexed areas that pay the fees. The fees shall
be spent on new or enlarged capital improvements that reasonably
benefit those developments or newly annexed areas that pay the fees.
- Impact fees that are assessed against new development or newly
annexed areas shall be assessed in such a manner that any new
development or annexation having the same impact on capital facilities
shall be assessed the same impact fee.
§ 42-4.
Calculation of fee.
The Town shall require an impact fee of
$2,000 per equivalent dwelling unit (EDU) for each building permit for
new residential construction, and $1 per square foot for commercial
construction applied for within the Town limits. The amount of the
impact fee may be modified by the Mayor and Council by resolution at a
public hearing.
§ 42-5. Payment
of impact fee; collection of unpaid
fees.
- The impact fee shall be paid by the owner to the Town prior to
the issuance of a building permit. The amount of the impact fee
assessment shall be set as of the date of the application for the
building permit. A building permit shall not be issued until any
applicable impact fee has been paid.
- Unpaid impact fees are a lien against the real property upon
which a building or structure is to be erected and shall be levied,
collected and enforced in the same manner as are Town real property
taxes and shall have the same priority and bear the same interest and
penalties as Town real property taxes for lien purposes.
- The impact fee imposed by this chapter is separate from and in
addition to any other fees which may be imposed by any federal, state
or county governmental agency.
§ 42-6.
Administration of impact fee.
The Town shall establish separate
accounts and maintain records for each such account whereby impact fees
collected can be segregated.
§ 42-7. Use of
funds.
- All impact fees collected under this chapter shall be used solely
for financing, in whole or in part, the capital costs of public
facilities, services, improvements and equipment required to
accommodate and/or benefit growth, construction or development, with
the purpose that new growth, construction and development pay a
proportionate fair share of the costs and expenses.
- Nothing in this chapter shall release, relieve or in any way
decrease a developer's obligation for assuming sole responsibility for
financing the construction of all on-site and off-site improvements
that are determined and are required by the Town or other applicable
governmental authority to be constructed in accordance with approved
plans, public works agreement and related documents.
- Nothing in this chapter shall release, relieve or in any way
decrease a developer's obligation to the Town for full payment of any
and all other required fees and assessments, mandatory conveyances of
land, execution of documents and for meeting any and all other
requirements that are specified in this Code.
- Nothing in this chapter shall preclude the use of funds by the
Town from other sources to supplement or augment any special capital
benefit assessment fees collected under this chapter.
§ 42-8. Bonding
of excess facility projects.
The Town may issue bonds, revenue
certificates and other obligations of indebtedness in such manner and
subject to such limitations as may be provided by law in furtherance of
the provision of capital improvement projects. Funds pledged toward
retirement of bonds, revenue certificates or other obligation of
indebtedness for such projects may include impact fees and other Town
revenues as may be allocated by the Mayor and Council of the Town of
Berlin. Impact fees paid pursuant to this chapter, however, shall be
restricted to use solely and exclusively for financing directly, or as
a pledge against bonds, revenue certificates and other obligations of
indebtedness for the cost of capital improvements as specified herein.
§ 42-9. Effect
of impact fee on zoning and
subdivision regulations.
This chapter shall not affect, in any
manner, the permissible use of property, density of development, design
and improvement standards and requirements or any other aspect of the
development of land or provision of capital improvements subject to
Chapter 107, Zoning, or the regulations of the Town which shall be
operative and remain in full force and effect without limitation with
respect to all such development.
§ 42-10. Impact
fee as additional and supplemental
requirement.
The impact fee is additional and
supplemental to and not in substitution of any other requirements
imposed by the Town on the development of land or the issuance of
building permits. It is intended to be consistent with and to further
the objectives and policies of the comprehensive plan, the capital
improvements plan and other Town policies, ordinances and resolutions
by which the Town seeks to ensure the provision of public facilities in
conjunction with the development of land. In no event shall a property
owner be obligated to pay for capital improvements in an amount in
excess of the amount required pursuant to this chapter, but provided
that a property owner may be required to pay, pursuant to Town
ordinances, regulations or policies, for other capital improvements in
addition to the impact fee for capital improvements as specified
herein.