Higher Fees Again?

The American Fork City Council voted to significantly increase the impact fees in American Fork City on Tuesday, July 11, 2017.  I voted NO to this increase.  (Frost, Shorter and Shelton voted FOR this fee increase.)

These are the fees you pay when you go to build a house.  Having higher fees may also mean less house for your money, if you're buying a house in American Fork.

It's rare for the Council to get public input during these types of hearings, so I think it's noteworthy that Deann Huish of the Utah Valley Home Builders Association attended to testify.  Deann mentioned that if the Council adopts these fee increases (which later that night they did), American Fork would have the third highest impact fees in all of Utah County!

To give you an idea of how much the fees increased by, here are some of the changes.  The following fee increases are for the Non-TOD  area (i.e. everywhere but the Front Runner station area):

Single Family Residence:

     Water, was $1,495 will be $2,502  (67% increase)
     Sewer, was $588 will be $840  (42% increase)
     Storm, was $1,020 will be $1,536  (50% increase)
     Parks, was $3,212 will be $3,855  (20% increase)
     Roads, was $2,077 will be $3,548  (70% increase)

A few fees did go down slightly, but not nearly enough to offset the numerous and significant fee increases!  Deann estimates that with all the fees required, building a house in AF will now jump from about $8,000 to $12,000+  just for city impact fees...

Making our city more expensive and less inviting to live and do business in is the wrong direction for our city to go.

We should seek to have a low tax and fee environment, not one of the highest in Utah County!


Carlton Bowen
AF City Mayoral Candidate
Current AF City Councilman