News

ARTICLE
Date ArticleType
8/10/2022 Member News

HBA Monitoring Parks SDC Updates


HBA's Government Affairs staff have been engaging with city leaders and elected officials in several jurisdictions as they prepare to undergo a reassessment, and likely increase, of Parks SDCs and in-lieu of fees. Several municipalities, including the cities of Sandy, Happy Valley, and Sherwood, are currently recalibrating policies for their Park SDC fees. Some presented the option of doubling, even tripling, the cost of Parks SDCs to over $31,333 in just 5 years. Some are also exhibiting what’s called a “middle of the pack” mentality, or a simple averaging of their fees with other jurisdictions. We are continuing to advocate that all fee increases are tied with a level-of-service methodology that fits a given community’s realistic resources and assets.

While HBA does generally support the local employment of SDCs, we have serious concerns over methodology and rates of increase that are being considered by municipalities for Parks and Nature. This is especially true as our industry has seen the degree of non-development related SDCs increase to cover items that are traditionally better served by regional bonding efforts. These potential increases are not needed at a time when there is a housing affordability crisis in the region. We will continue to fight for a wholesale lowering of non-development related SDCs and welcome builders in these communities to engage with us as we advocate on your behalf.

For more information, please reach out to Preston Korst (prestonk@hbapdx.org).