By John McLoone

PRESCOTT – The Prescott City Council at its meeting Monday, May 9 voted unanimously to contract for a study on its construction impact fees.

The council had a moratorium in euect on impact fees on residential properties from 2019 until August 2021. At that time, they di- rected stau to look at the impact fee structure.

Current impact fees on a single-family home built in Prescott are $2,190 per unit and are based on an assessment of public facilities needs that was conducted in 2002 and revised in 2003. Fees are $500 for public water, $700 for public buildings, $700 for public parks and $290 for public streets.

The contract with Ehlers Public Finance Advisors is for $5,500 for an impact fee feasibility analysis. The study will review the existing impact fees and ordinances to look at what the city is collecting fees for. The city’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan will be studied for possible residential and non-residential projects. The proposal from Ehlers states that the firm will "review the city's long-term capital improvement plan or other available capital planning data and identify projects that may be impact fee eligible.”

At the end of the study, Ehlers will “pre- pare a memo to city stau on the feasibility on continuing to charge impact fees for all existing fees and discuss the feasibility for imposing new impact fees within the city.”

City administrator Matt Wolf told the council that additional fees may be necessary to keep Prescott’s infrastructure stable in the growing community.

“As the City of Prescott grows, there are many items that will need to be addressed such as the water system, street improvements, park and recreational facilities and public buildings. Wisconsin state statute allows local governments to create ordinances to impose impact fees upon developers of land. These fees collected help pay for capital costs necessary because of land development. With the Assessment Study being 20 years old and the new development that is occurring throughout the City of Prescott, it is recommended that the city look at updating the Assessment Study,” Wolf wrote in a memo to council.

Wolf said the city would be “possibly looking at opportunities to include costs related to public parking lot improvements downtown, sewer treatment improvements related to water treatment and other areas that may need to be addressed.”

The initial approval is to look at capital projects that could qualify. From there, the full needs assessment would be put together.

“The facility needs assessment study would then set those actual impact fees, whether they go up or down, if there are new ones or ones are taken away. That would be the second phase,” Wolf said at the meeting.

"This is definitely necessary," said Alder person Bailey Ruona.

Storage building

In other business, the council unanimously approved a resolution approving the site plan for a Seven-building storage facility to be developed at 1045 Orrin Road, between Dollar General and the New Adventures Learning Center. The city plan commission recommended site plan approval at its May 2 meeting.

The development includes one 21,720-square-foot climate-controlled building fronting the project on Orrin Road and six self-storage garage buildings ranging in size from 4,800 to 7,920 square feet.

Developer of the project is Thone Builders.

Council members expressed the opinion that they would have liked the site to have a diuerent use, but they were in agreement that the facility appearance doesn’t look like a traditional storage facility with the large glass-fronted, white self-storage building visible on Orrin Road.

“It would have been nice to have something other than storage, but it’s very pleasing to the eye, so I appreciate that,” said Alderperson Darlyn Hintz.

"I'd definitely like to see something diuer ent than storage,” said Alderperson Pat Knox.