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Impact Fee Consultant (Tischler &
Associates)
Status Reports
MEMORANDUM
To: Paul Raco, Planning Director, Jefferson County West Virginia
From: Chris Cullinan, Tischler & Associates, Inc. (TA)
Date: September 19, 2002
Subject: Status of Impact Fee Report
The status of impact fee report is as follows:
1. 1 am currently gathering demographic data for projecting population, housing, employment, and nonresidential square footage.
2. I am scheduled to meet with the School's Impact Fee Committee at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, October 2nd. I am also scheduled to meet with the County's Parks and Recreation Director at 4 p.m. that afternoon.
3. The School's Impact Fee Committee sent Paul some information on their capital costs, which he is currently reviewing.
4. I briefly spoke with Lori Stilley regarding our meeting on the 2nd. There was some confusion about when the meeting was scheduled to take place.
5. Listed below are some outstanding data issues for various departments:
* The number of residential building permits issued between 4/1 /00 -- 12/31/01.
* Sheriff's Department -- they were asked to divide the time spent between criminal calls and civil calls. Criminal calls were then to be divided between residential and nonresidential addresses. Civil calls were to be divided between municipalities and the unincorporated county.
* Sheriff's Department -- current inventory of cars and current replacement cost (with all add-ons), current inventory of facilities (total square footage and current replacement cost, current inventory of communications equipment and any other pieces of equipment and current replacement cost for each piece.
* Sheriff's Department -- They were checking if any of the daily fee the County pays to house its prisoners is used for capital facilities.
* County vehicles and equipment - current inventory of County vehicles and equipment and current replacement cost for each piece of equipment.
* Fire Departments -- I have received completed forms from 3 of the 5 volunteer fire companies. I have followed up with Ed Smith on the 2 whose forms I haven't received.
* 911 Communications -- What is the status of the building study?
* 911 Communications -- They were to provide a breakdown of fire calls between residential and nonresidential addresses (with calls for road related incidents excluded).
Please let me know if you have any questions or need some additional information.
MEMORANDUM
To: Paul Raco, Planning Director, Jefferson County West Virginia
From: Chris Cullinan, Tischler & Associates, Inc. (TA)
Date: October 3, 2002
Subject: Follow-up from School Impact Fee Committee Meeting 10/2/02
A few notes from our meeting with the School impact Fee Committiee on 10/2/02:
We met with the committee for about 3 hours.
One member of the County Commissioners attended the meeting and we reiterated to him after the meeting that the County Commission is our client and that we will utilize the School Impact Fee Committee report and data only to the extent that it is appropriate and defensible.
We went through the data and methodology they used in their 'What Do Schools Cost?" (10/2/02 version) report and discussed the following:
* They are going to provide us all of the background information they used to calculate the current levels-of-service (LOS), capital costs, square footage, etc. We asked them to break all of their cost figures down to elementary, middle, and high school components.
* We will need to schedule a meeting with the appropriate school staff to discuss and verify this data.
* The two most significant data issues are the pupil generation rates used in their report and basing the impact fees on square footage.
Pupil Generation Rates -- They used a report from Loudon County, Virginia, which has a generation rate of .735 students per single family house. This number seems too high (we are used to seeing numbers in .5 - .58 range for single family houses). We are concerned about the methodology used in the Loudon County study and are following up with them. We recommended the committee ask the School Board to do their own survey (as was done for the 1990 impact fee study) and sent them a copy of a survey we've used in the past. A copy of the survey accompanies this memo.
Impact Fees Based on Square Footage -- Their impact fees are based on average square footage of single family house, townhouse, and apartment. We have concerns about this methodology and whether there is a direct correlation between pupil generation and square footage. We typically base school impact fees by type of housing unit (e.g., single family detached, single family attached, townhouse, etc.). Paul Burke is going to provide us some additional information on this methodology for us to review and evaluate.
• The committee is going to provide a list of school needs over the next 6 years to accommodate new growth.
• The committee is going to provide their best estimate of non-local funding for future school capital needs.
MEMORANDUM
To: Paul Raco, Planning Director, Jefferson County West Virginia
From: Chris Cullinan, Tischler & Associates, Inc. (TA)
Date: November 7, 2002
Subject: Status of Impact Fee Study
The status of impact fee report is as follows:
1 . We have completed on-site level-of-service interviews with County staff and have met with the School Impact Fee Committee. I will be scheduling a meeting with the School's Facility Management staff to confirm the data in 'What Do Schools Cost?" (10/2/02 version) report.
2. I am currently completing the "Demographic and Development" projection report and will have a draft to you to review in the next week or so.
3. The outstanding data issues are as follows:
* Sheriff's Department -- they were asked to divide the time spent between criminal calls and civil calls. Criminal calls were then to be divided between: residential and nonresidential addresses. Civil calls were to be divided between municipalities and the unincorporated county.
* Sheriff's Department -- current inventory of cars and current replacement cost (with all add-ons), current inventory of facilities (total square footage and I current replacement cost), current inventory of communications equipment and any other pieces of equipment and current replacement cost for each piece.
* Sheriff's Department -- They were checking if any of the daily fee the County pays to house its prisoners is used for capital facilities.
* County vehicles and equipment -- current inventory of County vehicles and: equipment and current replacement cost (not acquisition cost) for each piece of equipment.
* Fire Departments -- I have received completed forms from 4 of the 5 volunteer fire companies, Shepardstown being the remaining company.
* 911 Communications -- What is the status of the building study?
* 911 Communications -- They were to provide a breakdown of fire calls between residential and nonresidential addresses (with calls for road related incidents excluded). We also asked the Schools to do another pupil generation study similar to the one done in our 1991 report. It is my understanding that this will be done in the near future.
* We also asked the Schools to do another pupil generation study similar to the one done in our 1991 report. It is my understanding that this will be done in the near future.
* School Impact Fees Based on Square Footage -- The committee based their impact fees on average square footage of single family house, townhouse, and apartment. We have concerns about this methodology and whether there is a direct correlation between pupil generation and square footage. We typically base school impact fees by type of housing unit (e.g., single family detached, single family attached, townhouse, etc.). Paul Burke is going to provide us some additional information on this methodology for us to review and evaluate.
* The committee is going to provide a list of school needs over the next 6 years to accommodate new growth.
* The committee is going to provide their best estimate of non-local funding for future school capital needs.