Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the town election and planning commission meeting. This is our this board is comprised of town residents who are appointed by the town council and serve without pay. This is our regular communic monthly regular meeting on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2026. The meeting is being broadcast live on the town of Lexon YouTube channel. Speakers must sign in before 8:00 a.m. on the signin sheet posted at the door. Speakers will be called to the podium off the list collected. Speakers are limited to three minutes. I am Frank Barry the chairman of the plan town of Lex and planning commission. Other planning commission members present are Good morning Jared Harelson.

Morning Rosco Kaufman. Good morning Betsy McCall. You do I'm Jamie Fe.

Good morning Joe Robertson. Good morning JT Stevenson. That it all right. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for the changing of the season. Be with this body as we discuss the uh progress of the town and the changes and help us to make good conscious decisions of moving forward. Be with those who are sick, worthy in distress, and help them through their day. In your most holy name we pray. Amen. Algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

The meeting will now come to order. Um, no deletions to the agenda. Next order of business, approval of the minutes from the March 17th work session and the regular meeting of March 18th. Motion to approve. Have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Motion and a second. Any questions, comments? All in favor, please raise your right hand. It is unanimous. New business item impact fee update phase two.

Good morning. Thank you for bearing with me um as my voice is going. Um the impact fee ordinance adopted on February 1st, 2020 requires the planning commission to conduct a comprehensive review and update of the following at least once every 5 years. the development impact fee study report for the town of Lexington, the town of Lexington capital improvements plan, the housing affordability analysis in support of a development impact fee study, and the development impact fee ordinance. Phase one of this update was adopted by town council on March 3rd, 2025. The transportation component was deferred until completion of the local transportation improvement plan 2.0, which is now complete. attached is phase two of the required updates which includes the transportation component and um our consultant Matt Noncaster with city explained is here and has a presentation to kind of go over that with you all.

Okay. Come on. Come on up to the podium and

All right. Mr. Chairman, members of planning commission, my name is Matt Newcaster. I'm the owner and founding principal of City Explained, Inc. Uh, and we were the consultants that were hired to update the study. Um, we updated the last study and we updated the study before that. So, it's good to see you all again. Thank you. So, do we have the presentation queued up? We're good. Okay. Um, and can I just tell you next to advance? Okay. Perfect. All right. So, as Jessica mentioned, um, there is a formal process to go through in order to update your development impact fee program. So, I'm here today to present to you uh and seek action of a recommendation to move forward to council. So, in terms of our agenda for today, I'm just going to quickly set the table in terms of what we're doing and why we're here. Um just review with you the requirements from the act, the state law that we must follow uh in order to move forward. Um quickly show you the documents that were um presented to you and and then take any questions and then move on to next step. So, um I'll be pretty quick. I don't want to be too formal here. So if you have a question in your head at that time, just go ahead and ask at that point. Uh if you're comfortable with that, Mr. Chairman. Next.

Okay. By way of introduction. Next. As Jessica had mentioned, um there are provisions within the act that require a uh review and update every five years, just like you would your comprehensive plan, do a review of that document. So u but as was also mentioned, we were here in March of last year. So really, it's not the 5-year clock uh that has brought us forward here, but it's the fact that the transportation study has been complete. And so we now need to update that portion. Next, and just so you're aware and so you'll know for next time, when you get to the uh review period at the end of the ordinance, you'll see that the clock will set again on all three impact fee categories, five years from the effective date of the ordinance that we're considering now. Next, And so we are here to talk about transportation. Um while we're here though, we did just do um some very light editing. No change in the fees or the conclusions to any of the other chapters, but just so that everything is online and and current at the same time. So while we did delay for the transportation study and waiting for that this time, next time all of your impact fees should be back on the same schedule. So, um, they're all being brought forward for you today, but there's been no changes to the other two categories. And so, then who does this apply to? Um, because again, this is now your second and it will be actually kind of your third time or call it uh update 2B. Um, so anybody who uh pulls a building permit uh before the effective date of this ordinance will still pay the old fees. Anybody then who? Next slide. Anybody who pulls a permit. Uh, next slide. Oh, it's a delay on it. Gotcha. Darn fade transition, right? Uh, anybody who comes in afterwards after the effective date and pulls a building

permit will have the new fees. So, it's very uh clear black and white on what to do there. Terms of requirements of the act. If you can go to the next slide, please. Um, in terms of what they can be used for, the simple answer here is they need to be used to increase capacity of your system. The thought is that new growth, new people, new employees and stuff are coming into the town. In order to use impact fees, we have to increase the supply to meet that new demand. So, we can't do anything with operations or maintenance or even rehabilitation or replacement of existing facilities. This is to expand infrastructure to keep pace with growth. Um and you can see what they again what they can't be used for there is very clear and then again other provisions within this within the act but I'm really worried about the last two which is the comprehensive review and update every 5 years you're within the window because we were here last year but we didn't finish the job so here we are with transportation now ready to finish the job um and then any new projects so I told you we kind of refreshed everything um we took a fresh look at all projects for all three categories ories uh for the CIP that was brought forward for you. Thanks. We are required to bring four documents to you. So um don't blame me, blame the state law and the thickness of your packet this time and I apologize for all the reading you had to do especially the appendix of the justification report. But number one is the justification report. Basically I call it the adult book report. um we have to look at your current conditions, what's projected to move forward, and then try to figure out what is the cost to meet those needs. Um in order to get what's called a cost per trip, which I'll go into here in more detail. Once we know what those things are that you need, we have to create a CIP, a capital improvements plan, uh specific for projects that are eligible for development impact fee funding. It makes your life easier for tracking money coming in and money going out. Uh again, under the act, the act does

require we look at the impacts to affordable housing. Um it makes the requirements, it's a little silent on all the requirements of how to do that study, but we've just been consistent with what we do in the state of South Carolina as well as well as what we've done for you before. And then the development impact fee ordinance that's brought forward to you today, we did highlight sort of in yellow things that changed really for updates. And then there's a couple things that we have to wait for like this concept of a discount rate that I'll talk to you about in just a minute. Um those are highlighted in a different color just so we know what kind of changes we're making. So in terms of process um you know we we were waiting for the LTIP version 2.0 to be finished. Once it was finished we were able to work with that hired consultant to create a memorandum. That memorandum then was translated into our report. Um so I thank them for their efforts and their time and patience with us. Um but all the all the documentation is finished. We're now going through the hearing process starting with you all and then eventually going to council. Okay. So just a very quick highlight of the documents that were in your packet. If you can go to the next slide, please. The first one is the justification report. Again, that's the the book report that I call it. It's got the um lengthy technical appendex behind it. Um it's it's really just documenting what the existing conditions are, future demands that we anticipate and then how we would solve those demands with projects. Uh in terms of as I mentioned, we wanted to get everything on the same cycle. So all three impact fees are brought back to you in this report. Parks and recreation, uh municipal facilities and services and transportation. Um but transportation is really the big lift that we did this time around. So, I'm going to focus on transportation. So, when we came to you before, we used a methodology. It's called a consumption-driven approach. Basically, think about it as is each new resident or employee comes to Lexington,

they just get in the back of the line and they have a proportionate share like everybody else in the line. Transportation is a little bit different. It's called an improvementsdriven approach. There are standards set for how uh congestion should be handled and traffic flow should should happen within the town. and they give letter grades and so an analysis is done and once you uh exceed that letter grade an improvement is needed to bring you back into conformance with what your standards or your targets are and then those projects are inventoried and recommended as impact fee projects. So that's sort of what we did in this one and again there's a direct tie to your LTIP version 2.0 and that memorandum uh by their consultant that created the bridge into into this document. Next So, this is going to test my eyesight, but in 2019, we have to go back to those numbers. Um, and then now we have 2025. The numbers in all cases went up. It increased. Uh, if you look at the cost per trip, you're in the $80 range in 2019 and you're up to the $125 range for 2025. It's just because um more improvements have been um identified. The cost to make those improvements has gone up over time. Um but generally speaking the outcome of this study is that your impact fees do increase and we can justify why they increase with the analysis that we did. Next now there is the uh opportunity to apply a discount rate. Uh it's a policy decision within the ordinance. So it has nothing to do with the analysis. It's just sort of a policy decision that gets made. Um currently right now I was uh when I was reviewing the ordinance I see you have a 0% discount rate. Um, so you charge the maximum allowable that I could justify with the math that we were able to do. And so right now I'm just assuming until I'm told differently, we're going to continue doing that. Um, so that's sort of where we've set expectations at this point. Thanks.

But if you are curious, if you go to chapter 5 within the document, there is a table that just gives you theoretical discount rates if you want to review what that would be. Um, you're not locked in to those numbers that are there. they were just chosen as an example, but anywhere between zero and 100% can be applied. And then just in comparison to what you are collecting right now, again, remember that effective date thing. So if somebody comes in for a building permit right now, those numbers on the right are what uh you're collecting now and you see the impact fees do go up slightly. It's not as dramatic because only one of the impact fees is really increasing the cost because we've already absorbed the parks and recreation and the municipal facility and equipment fees in the last time I was here in March.

Next, does that quick question does that fee increase include inflation?

So, what we try to end up doing, so in the consumption driven approach, we do not. So for the two impact fee categories, we just kind of figure what it is in today's dollars because we don't know exactly which project and when. With the improvements driven approach, we do try to factor in an inflation because we know like when that letter grade is going to trip for transportation so we have a better guess from forecasting. So yes, we did try to put an inflationary number into those uh costs. Um, and this is another place I want to spotlight for you because this is a significant change from the last time I was here uh in March of last year. This is your capital improvements plan. And this time around, um, we wrapped it with a much better story. I think um, in previous versions, you just had a table and a list and there was a little bit of mystery of terms of like what the project was, how it got there, how it's going to be funded, those kind of things. This time around, we've kind of wrapped it again in a story and we actually have a project sheet. So, a one-page summary of each project and that's the approach we'd like to move forward move forward from this point going on. Uh, and then it's going to be easier to fold it into your annual budgeting process because we have more information for it's just more clear, easier to track those kind of things. So, that is probably the biggest change uh in the documentation even from March of 25 to now is in the CIP. Next. And then again we had to do the the uh housing affordability analysis again requirement of the act. If you go to the next slide is the conclusion. Um and generally speaking and I'm telling you what you already know but um costs of housing are going up uh in Lexington like everywhere else. Um when you look at the impact or the change of the impact fee um it's not a significant number but it is an increase and so every increase matters. Um but we'd have to bring this to your attention. Um it does the state law does not require us to do anything with this except to be information that you have as you make your recommendations next.

And then the impact fee ordinance itself and again the way it's structured you've been you've had this now since I think it's October of 2019 was the first time I'd come to you. Um so it's been working pretty well but this is actually the rules and the requirements. So everything else uh is going to be a reference document or a resource document. This is actually how you administer the game so to speak. And so this is how much of what kind, what time do you collect it, how are refunds um or other agreements put in place to maybe uh put a project in versus paying the fee, those kind of things. All that is in your impact fee ordinance. If you go to the next slide, uh and so there's really two recommended changes that you see highlighted with the yellow and the other colors throughout the document. One is um we just need to make sure we're referencing the correct document now. So you'll notice we add the date at the end of each title now because you're you are now mature enough in your impact fee system that you're u already updating and through cycles. So we need to know which document to point to if somebody has a question. So that's the biggest change that we had. Um we also will um have the the uh discount rates and the cost that the um unit costs have already been updated because that came out in my study. Uh but if the decision is made to apply a discount rate, we'll have to filter that through the document. So that's flagged for where that applies if we need to do it. Next. Okay. So in terms of next steps, if you go to here, as I mentioned, we're here today uh to have this discussion with you. Jessica mentioned it's kind of a formal process. So we're uh hoping to have a recommendation to move forward. Uh then we'll end up going to council. Uh it is a text amendment at this point because you already have your ordinance in place. Um so we'd be making text amendments like the ones that you see in the yellow and the I think it's cyan or turquoise color that's in there. Um, and then you would move forward with an effective date and and go from there. So, at this point, I couldn't think of anything more fun and sexy than the start of your day with impact feed

discussions, but I'm here for any questions that you have. Um, and I can stay as long as you want. Anybody got any questions, comments? How do we go about educating the public? Because when they hear impact fees, they're going to think 100% negativity, which this money is actually used as we grow to make the improvements everybody complains about. So, how would we go about educating the public for that? What's your thought on that?

I was going to say I'll tell you a couple of facts that go along with this. Um I'm not a PR person, but the facts are impact fees are an additional fee on new development only. Uh that helps offset the impacts of them coming into your community and creating new demand for services. So in some ways the impact fees are maybe slowing down or halting the need for tax increases or things of that nature where everybody would have to pay uh as part of that improvement. Uh that being said, the only the biggest rub I do get is if an existing resident like decides to build a new house within the community that is considered a new impact. So they would pay an impact fee because somebody else is going to move into their existing home. And so there actually is an addition. So usually the the part where new residents um end up paying the or existing residents end up paying the fee is when they build something brand new within the community. If you stay within an existing home or you buy an existing home as as a new place to live, all of that is is not included in the impact fee. So, it's really for new construction that this applies to

because when you buy an existing home, you're not generating a building permit. Correct. So, so there is no impact fee for existing home sales. Mhm. You got something? Uh, just for the record, I make sure just the public knows that we reviewed this thoroughly a year ago. We delayed this portion till LTIP was completed. So, uh this isn't just a quick presentation. We actually went through the whole uh impact fee study. That's correct. A year ago with several work studies. Yeah, that was in December of 2024. So, um that that work session and all is available um for viewing on our website. Thought it's important to note.

Yes. And if I remember correctly too, like you said, a lot of it was cleanup to bring the dates current. Yeah, it's more housekeeping stuff. Um, again, but we wanted to we didn't want to have it where you look at your document, you're like, well, chapter 4 is newer than chapters two and three. So, this this whole document is brought forward to you again so that everything is on the same page uh and fresh. And so, your five-year clock will start over on all three categories once you um get an effective date this time around, right? They'll be all in the same timeline going forward. That's correct. Less confusion. Now, based on recommendation to council today, they get it in May. Correct.

And is it three readings? It's two readings in a public hearing. Okay. So, it would be adopted in June unless there's some reason that council delays. Yes. Okay. All right. Mhm.

I'll just add real quick to Frank's point on educating the public, um, you know, I think the projects listed in here, like most folks in town, if you ask them where their traffic concerns are, they'd probably name the locations listed here. So, these are specific improvements, you know, identified through traffic analysis. Um, you know, there may not be a funding source for these otherwise. So, this puts the responsibility on new development. So, it kind of ties everything together. So, I would encourage folks to read through this and um you know, get excited about it.

And the CIP, as as Matt said, we we did make an effort to make that more of a story. Um and it it shows where the funding sources are for those projects. Um so, that is helpful for the public to understand, right? I'll I'll just say sort of tongue and cheek when I did get the L tip to uh you open the appendix. I think it's a thousand pages of analysis. I mean, this was analyzed, believe me, it was analyzed very thorough. Yes. And we went from, if Ry's here, we went, if I'm not mistaken, we went from the worst, we started out with the worst locations that needed improvements and worked our way down. Correct.

Correct. Yeah. All righty. Anybody got any other questions, comments? And I will say for any public that's interested, um Randy did do a presentation on the LTIP 2.0 last month. Um so please reference that video andor minutes if you're curious and want to educate yourself. All right. Motion make a motion to move development impact fee update to phase two uh to council for recommendation recommendation to council excuse me. Second

second. Any further discussion clarification comments? All in favor please raise your right hand. It is unanimous. That is it for for this month training. I hope to have an email out to you by the end of the month with a schedule for the remainder of the year. Okay. All righty. Any other comments, vice chair? I can't believe that, but I have a motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn, I guess, in my comment.

Without uh any reservation, we are journed. Thank you for watching the town election and planning commission. Commission members are unable to encourage an outside communication regarding agenda items. If you have additional questions following the meeting, please contact the municipal clerk. With no objection, this meeting is adjourned. The town of Lexington Planning Commission and staff wish you a good day.