Road impact fee in works

A proposal to raise money to build roads and intersections will go before the Douglas County Planning Commission on Tuesday.

"There's no money for the work," County Senior Civil Engineer Jeff Foltz said. "We've been setting aside money every year for Muller Lane, but we can't do that right now and still have a road system."

Construction of two lanes of Muller Lane Parkway alone is estimated to cost the county $8 million.

Impact fees were one of the suggestions included in the transportation element of the master plan approved in 2007.

Foltz said initial estimates would add $7,600 to the cost of a residential building permit.

Commercial building permits would vary depending on the size of the business and its effect on the road system, but could range between $1 a square foot for a warehouse with little traffic to $13 a square foot for restaurant.

"It's going to change," he said of the estimates. "Right now the numbers are based on traffic estimates and project cost estimates. Those estimates are changing, so the figures are pretty rough."

Foltz said the fee would only apply to new construction, not renovations or rebuilding a destroyed structure.

In a report to planning commissioners, Foltz said that a number of projects were identified in the master plan to maintain an acceptable level of service on the county collectors and arterials.

"Currently the county has no funding for these projects," he said. "The transportation plan identifies a number of potential funding sources for these projects and among those is the implementation of regional traffic impact fees."

The slow down in home building may have contributed to a delaying of a deadline to finish Muller Parkway, but if the impact fee is approved, it would also reduce the amount of money coming in to build the road.

Foltz said the requirement that Muller Parkway be built by 2012 had multiple triggers, some of which have not sprung.

It has been a year since the county began work of a $463,500 contract with Stantec Consulting to engineer the route.

When completed, Muller Parkway will stretch from Highway 395 north of Minden to Toler Lane in southern Gardnerville.

According to the Douglas County Capital Improvements Plan, the two-lane road will reduce traffic on Highway 395 through the two towns.