Bastrop City Council OKs new traffic impact fee, art grants
The Bastrop City Council rounded out a year focused on addressing the city’s traffic and road infrastructure issues by zeroing in on road maintenance in its last meeting of 2023.
The council approved a new transportation impact fee, which will take effect following a 12-month grace period. Only new developments within city limits will pay this fee. The move comes as the City Council attempts to address the impact of new developments on the city’s transportation infrastructure.
“The transportation impact fee is really meant so that new development pays its way on the transportation and road system so that current residents aren’t taxed to death,” City Manager Sylvia Carrillo said in September.
The maximum rate for these fees is $8,644 per single-family house on the west side of the Colorado River and $5,204 per home on the east side of the river. Carrillo said the rates differ because the opposite sides of the river face “massively different growth rates.”
Developers will pay transportation impact fees when filing building permits with the city. The council discussed the fees being an expense eventually passed on to renters or homebuyers and how that could affect Bastrop’s affordability.
“It is a passthrough fee,” said Council Member Kevin Plunkett. “It’s going to show up on the cost of the property, which means it’s going to hit everyone, including the people that are already here.”
Mayor Pro Tem John Kirkland suggested the city “phase in” the fee. After the 12-month grace period, new developments will pay 65% of the fee for the first year. The second year, developers will pay 85%. By the third year, developers will pay the maximum fee.
Additionally, the City Council unanimously approved allocating sales tax revenue to a street maintenance fund. Proposition A, which passed with 69% of the vote in November, allowed the city to make this change.
Previously, the Bastrop Economic Development Corporation received half a percent of the overall 8.25% sales tax. The City Council’s action allocates 0.125% for the economic development corporation, while 0.375% funds road maintenance. The city’s assistant finance director, Laura Allen, said the city expects this ordinance to raise $3.3 million for street maintenance.
Art grants approved
The City Council also unanimously approved two grants totaling $24,200 from the Texas Commission on the Arts. Candice Butts, the city’s Main Street Manager, said the smaller $8,000 grant will fund promotional material and regular cleanings of the city’s statues. She said the city would have to match this grant, and part of its contribution would fund local artists’ salaries within the city’s cultural arts work plan.
Butts said the city will use the second grant, worth $16,200, to finish an “iconic art project” centered around Bastrop’s new “Bird City” designation.
“That iconic art project is to connect Texas 95 to Chestnut (Street) to bring awareness (and) traffic downtown,” Butts said.
Butts said this grant money will go toward the second phase of the “iconic art project.” She said the call for art submissions will open in January and close in March. Butts said she expects an August installation date for the art selected by the Cultural Arts Commission.
Additionally, the City Council unanimously approved two of the mayor’s appointments to the city’s advisory boards. Mary Moody will take Place 5 on the city’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Board. Shawn Pletsch will take Place 8 on the Main Street Program Advisory Board.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Bastrop City Council OKs new traffic impact fee, art grants
