By Gary Nelson| The Arizona Republic
Back in the days of Mesa’s biggest growth spurts, the city had been accustomed to increasing its development impact fees every three years.
The fees, which are tacked on to the price of new single-family homes, apartments and other construction, offset Mesa’s costs for growth-related infrastructure. The idea is that residents of older neighborhoods shouldn’t bear the cost, for example, of laying water lines to a new subdivision.
It now has been six years since Mesa adjusted those fees, and another five are likely to pass before it happens again.
Two major events prevented what would have been a regular update in 2010.
The first was the recession; Mesa had no interest in making homes more expensive while the real-estate industry struggled amid an epic crash. The second was an ongoing effort by homebuilders to change the state law that authorizes impact fees.
That effort led to a major rewrite of the law in 2011, and it has taken Mesa two years to figure out how the legislation will affect the city.
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