Some places are just more expensive to live in than others.
The cost of buying a home, or building one, varies tremendously.
But some residents (or would-be
residents) in one of the country’s prettiest and most pristine areas are saying
enough, already. The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency charges fees not only to
cover its own expenses and costs, but also to mitigate the effects that new
development might have on Lake Tahoe.
A recent article
in the Tahoe Daily Tribune quotes a man who says the permitting fees for
construction of his new 2,155-square-foot home have so far totaled $23,180.68,
more than two-thirds of those from the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency. (That’s
in addition to almost $19,000 for a sewer permit.) He calls the fees an example
of “unchecked government.”
A TRPA spokesman, also quoted in
the article, says the fees go toward protecting the lake: “It’s all going back
into the product.” The agency itself has provided a list of the fees associated
with construction of a home of this size in the area, which is quoted in the
article. This is the list:
* $100 — Fee for monitoring water-quality impacts and
permit conformance.
* $3,258.40 — Air quality mitigation fee for new
residences. The fee is $325.84 per daily vehicle trip. Single-family dwellings
create 10 daily vehicle trips, according to the International Traffic
Engineering Manual.
* $88 — Information technology surcharge for all
applications. Serves as cost recovery mechanism and funds equipment and systems
upgrades.
* $365 — Off-site coverage mitigation to pay for water-quality
issues resulting from the portion of the driveway apron that connects to the
street.
* $263.40 — City of South Lake Tahoe cost recovery for TRPA review.
Agencies that partner with TRPA add 10 percent to TRPA application filing fees
to recover cost of administrating a memorandum of understanding with the
TRPA.
* $2,370.60 — TRPA cost recovery for application review is $1.10 per
square foot on new residential buildings. The city keeps this to pay for staff
time reviewing the project. Includes all administration costs for permit review
and site visits.
* $76 — TRPA cost recovery for administration of
securities, finance team, etc.
* $2,901.60 — TRPA water-quality mitigation
fund contribution based on square feet of impervious surfaces created. The
current fee is $1.86 per square foot. Mitigation funds are a pass-through and go
to the jurisdiction where a project is developed to fund water-quality
improvement projects to offset the impact of development as a whole. TRPA
collects no administration fees for water-quality mitigation funds and holds
them in an account to accrue interest until the jurisdiction is ready to
implement a project.
* $3,250 — Special water-quality mitigation for Tahoe
Keys properties. Fee is a set amount per new home in the Keys and is not used
often since there are few vacant parcels left.
What do you think? Are these reasonable fees for construction
in an environmentally sensitive area?