City Must Shore Up Plan For Development Fees In/Around: Indian Trail

Neither Rod Plese nor any other developer has to pay to help improve Indian Trail Road until city officials are able to properly measure how individual projects affect the road, according to city Hearing Examiner Greg Smith.

In ruling on a request by Plese for the 124-home expansion of his Woodridge Addition, Smith backed contentions by Plese’s attorney, James Craven, that the fees are being requested without the technical and legal support to substantiate them.

The city had asked Plese to pay a voluntary fee of $721 per home, or $89,404, for the Woodridge expansion, set for a slope north of Howesdale Drive. The Planning Department had threatened to deny approval or require an environmental impact statement if Plese refused to pay.

But Smith said if Plese was refusing to pay, the fee was not voluntary. He also said the city had not substantiated its request for payment, identified a service area for the fees or adopted an appeal process.

“There was insufficient evidence in the record to show what exactly this plat’s impact would be,” Smith wrote. “There was no evidence as to what effect that traffic would have on Indian Trail Road in terms of level of service.”

Smith’s office is independent from the Planning Department. He hears rezone and subdivision requests, and his decisions can be appealed to the City Council.

The Planning Department has asked Smith to reconsider the decision.

“We’re not convinced the record didn’t already have the information we needed to have,” said Charlie Dotson, city planning director.

Attorney Craven said this is the fifth case he’s handled challenging the city’s request for impact fees, and each time the hearing examiner ruled them improper.

“There’s no appropriate implementing ordinance and no identification why and in what amount the fees are being imposed,” said Craven. “The city has never to this day followed appropriate procedures.”

Smith agreed.

“For future plats,” he wrote, “it is imperative to develop a viable and legally defensible system to measure the impacts on Indian Trail Road of each development and have the mechanism in place to properly mitigate those impacts.”

, DataTimes