ABSTRACT

Recent research documents five major instances of transit impact fees: transportation system development charge, Portland; concurrency fee, Broward County; transportation mitigation impact fee, Aventura; transportation impact development fee, San Francisco; and transportation-mitigation payment, Seattle. Seattle's program is voluntary, and thus it is farthest removed from a traditional impact fee. Furthermore, Aventura's impact fee program is very new, adopted in 2009, and impact fee has been charged only once. Crude fee rates, such as charging a fee for residential uses on a per-unit rather than per-square-foot or per-bedroom basis have negatively impacted equity in Broward County and Portland. Spatial inequity results when only certain areas receive benefits from the fee. The San Francisco TIDF was challenged in court because the fee was only charged to office uses, leaving most properties exempt. Jurisdictions planning on levying impact fees might consider the adoption of strategies that reduce the fees negative impacts on low-income residents.