The city of Fresno's administration has come up with several new excuses for not raising developer fees for streets. That has angered the City Council, which is ready to double fees immediately. The council was supposed to vote for the fee increase on Tuesday, but the mayor's office has pushed that vote off until Jan. 23.
Instead of determining the proper level of fees, city staff has been allowing the development community to run the show. The fees have not been raised for nearly 15 years. But now even the developers want the fees to increase, but the city can't figure out how to get it done in a timely manner.
City officials say the paper work for the fee increase has not been completed. So what have these people been doing? "I'm fine doubling the fees, but it's not automatic," said Assistant City Manager Jon Ruiz. "You can't just decide to double the fees and just do it."
Not if your heart really isn't into it. This is one more example of the city being cozy with the building community. This won't get done until the developers say it's OK. They call the tune at City Hall.
Here's Matt Leedy's story in today's Bee.
I can understand the need to have studies justifying the fee increases to pass legal muster. But this should have been done a long time ago. And I don't understand why the developers should be playing such a major role in setting their own fees. Do they really like having a patchwork of half-finished roads connecting their new subdivisions?