By Lee Ross
Mountain View Telegraph
SANTA FE COUNTY, NM — There’s something of a squeeze on funding for the Santa Fe County Fire Department, according to Chief Stan Holden.
Holden attended a meeting of the Edgewood Planning and Zoning Commission on Monday to help explain the fire department’s position as it relates to impact fees, one source of funding for capital improvements such as new fire stations and fire engines.
One problem is that impact fees — charges assessed to new construction to pay for an increased demand for firefighting capabilities — may become yet another victim of the country’s poor economy. With just two new housing permits in 2009, it seems likely that the commission will have to adjust downward the estimates for growth in Edgewood.
Building in the unincorporated areas of the county is lower than expected as well, Holden said.
So far, none of the more than $350,000 collected from those fees has been spent, according to Town Administrator Karen Mahalick. All of that money will probably go to fund a new regional fire station on Section 16, which is north of Interstate 40 and just west of N.M. 344, Holden said.
The station will likely cost $3.7 million, which is down from earlier estimates of about $4.2 million. Holden said that’s because contractors seem to be more competitive in the current economy, which tends to drive down building bids. The station could be completed by May 2011, he said.
Meanwhile, the task for Edgewood’s commission will be to accurately predict the town’s growth.
Tim Oden of Oden and Associates in Moriarty pointed out that the impact fee system, which is intended to make new residents pay for required infrastructure improvements, isn’t perfect. Some existing residents will benefit from the structures and equipment the impact fees pay for, but there will also be revenue bonds and other means of financing the improvements that may even things out a bit.
“It doesn’t need to hit the nail right on the head,” was how Commissioner John Bassett put it.
Another item of discussion was a possible change in the amount of information required from developers to prove they have access to water.
Currently, a letter from an established water company stating it will serve the development is sufficient for preliminary plat approval, one of the steps in the town’s process for reviewing developments. In the case of a preliminary plat for Campbell Ranch, a letter just two sentences long moved the process forward.
Commissioners mu l led over a draft of a form letter that would require water companies to give much more information than is currently required.
The letter asks for a valid certificate to serve the proposed subdivision, an accounting of available water rights, the improvements the water company would require of a developer such as water storage, and whether service was contingent upon some action by regulatory agencies such as the Public Regulation Commission.
Discussion about both the impact fees and the form letter should continue at the zoning commission’s next meeting Feb. 15.
Copyright 2010 Albuquerque Journal