February 18, 2013

The TIFF About TIF

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Here is some interesting data compiled by Chris Comeau, AICP, Transportation Planner with Bellingham Public Works, for traffic impact fee (“TIF”) rates in the state of Washington as of December 2012.  These TIF rates appear to be calculated on the cost per single family dwelling unit which generates about ten peak trips.

The unincorporated urban and rural TIF rates for Clark County are absent from this chart but are here. Based on this chart, Clark County would be near the top for some of the TIF districts factoring in ten trips per single family home while others would be in the lower or middle end.

Not without making too big of a generalization, it appears from this chart that a lot of the growing communities face a much higher TIF rate than older communities.  This makes sense as the new communities need to build new infrastructure to accommodate growth.  But there might be an inequity there since older communities may also require expensive retrofits that get revenue from other sources such as the gas tax.

I am curious to what other people think about this issue, essentially whether the disparate treatment of TIFs across jurisdictions creates an imbalance in trying to get additional transportation funding.  Please send me your thoughts.

And on a personal note, I want to thank Mr. Comeau for compiling this data as it is extremely interesting.

For more information on this topic, please contact marketing@jordanramis.com or call (888) 598-7070.

 


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