The Wake Forest commissioners voted unanimously to charge the full fees recommended in the recent fire protection impact fee study and, like Fire Chief Ron Early, worried they would not produce enough to fund the sixth fire station and the ladder truck needed by 2020.
Our concern going forward is that the new fees will drastically reduce the amount of money so that we will not be able to pay for the capital projects, the next fire station and the second ladder truck, Early said.
The consultant who did the study for the new fees said the town could charge the full amount he recommended, Commissioner Margaret Stinnett said.
Commissioner Brian Pate was concerned that the cost of Station #4 was still included in the study when it has been paid for out of the fees collected since 2007. “My understanding is that we can go up to 100 percent but risk potential legal issues by doing so.”
“What does our lawyer say?” asked Stinnett, and Eric Vernon said the board could set the fees as they see fit as king as they do not discriminate and the town can document the cost justification.
Mayor Vivian Jones said the rate study was based on both the town and the rural fire district, Wakette, around it. The Wake Forest Fire Department contracts with both the town and the county.
But, Commissioner Anne Reeve said, “Those lands (in Wakette) are coming into town” as subdivisions are planned and annexed. Without the fire impact fees, she said, “We would have had to come up with that money to build that station (#4 on Jenkins Road).”
“I think it can be justified,” Commissioner Jim Thompson said. ”I think this number (in the study) is low.”
The commissioners worried that it might be ten years or more before they could adjust the rates again, but Town Manager Kip Padgett said they could do it at any time. “You just have to have a study done.”
Reeve talked about the challenges facing the fire department. “Heritage and Traditions, they are towns within a town, and those bigger homes” require more equipment. Ladder trucks are needed because firefighters cannot get on and operate on the new homes with multiple roofs as they can with single- or double-story homes with only one roof line.
Thompson suggested the rate be “kept in line with home values.”
“We can’t justify going any higher” than the recommended rates, Stinnett said. “We can’t use the 2007 rates because we have this study. Our hands are tied.”
She then made a motion to approve 100 percent of the recommended rates, seconded by Pate and approved by all five commissioners.
The old and new fees for fire protection impact are: $592 under the 2007 rate for a single-family home, $454 now; $481 for each multi-family unit, $341 now; $649 per 1,000 sq. ft. commercial/institutional, $767 now; and $389 for 1,000 sq. ft. industrial/manufacturing, $265 now. The consultant found there is more growth in the commercial sector than in manufacturing.
