The Mancos Re-6 school district passed a new resolution for its impact fee on June 19, the first time the board has raised the fee since 2006.
The question posed by the board was, “Should the impact fee for new residences in the Mancos Re-6 School District be raised?” before discussing and eventually voting on the measure at the end of their meeting.
An impact fee is also known as a “school land dedication fee” or an “in-lieu-of-land fee” and was enabled by the Colorado State Statute 30-28-133. This statute gave school districts the ability to set a fee “in lieu of land.” This fee is charged when new residential units or developments are built within the school district boundaries.
The money collected from the impact fee goes directly to the school district to help fund the schools. Before the vote, Mancos’ impact fee was $276. After the vote, the new impact fee is $550.
Before voting, the school board found in its research that Mancos had the lowest fee in the surrounding area. Montezuma-Cortez collects between $835 and $1,044, and Dolores collects $535 for their impact fees.
In La Plata County, Durango (depending on the housing unit) collects between $290 and $945, and Bayfield collects $794.
“It is in the best interest of the Mancos School District that its school land dedication/fee in lieu of requirement to be modified to five hundred and fifty dollars as a condition for approval for each residential unit in new subdivisions within its school district boundaries and respectively requests that the Town of Mancos and Montezuma County amend their subdivision review and approval process to reflect this fee modification,” the resolution said.
The resolution passed, with Tim Hunter the only member voting against the measure.
