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PUBLIC HEARING TOWN OF CHARLESTOWN AMENDMENTS TO ZONING ORDINANCE Notice is hereby given that the following ordinance has been enacted by the Town Council of the Town of Charlestown on April 10, 2000 after advertised hearing pursuant to requirement of Home Rule Charter whereby all persons were given the opportunity to be heard. ORDINANCE NO. 220 AN ORDINANCE IN RELATION TO ZONING The Town Council of the Town of Charlestown hereby ordains: ARTICLE XVIII entitled Capital Facilities Impact Fees is hereby added as follows: § 218-140. Impact Fees Authorized. This Article authorizes the establishment of an impact fee on land development in Charlestown for providing new and/or expanded schools (and its related facilities) within Charlestown and/or within the Chariho Regional School District which are necessitated by such new development. A) The Chariho Regional School District is required by State statute to provide public educational opportunities for all Charlestown school-age pupils and that school site planning and new or expanded schools within the district, including Charlestown, requires the coordination of planning between the Chariho Regional School District and the Charlestown Town Council to ensure that plans for the construction and opening of public educational facilities are coordinated in time and place with plans for residential development and other necessary services; and, B) The Chariho Regional School District and the Town of Charlestown must expand its educational facilities in order to maintain current levels of service if new development is to be accommodated without decreasing current levels of service. This must be done in order to promote and protect the public health, safety, and welfare of current and future citizens; C) The State of Rhode Island through the enactment of Rhode Island Comprehensive Planning Act of 1988 and the Zoning Enabling Act of 1991 (RIGL Sec. 45-24-30) has sought to encourage Charlestown to enact innovative development regulations and techniques. D) The imposition of impact fees is one of the preferred methods of ensuring that development bears a proportionate share of the cost of educational capital facilities necessary to accommodate such development. This must be done in order to promote and protect the public health, safety, and welfare. E) Development of single family houses will place additional students in the public schools of the Chariho District and Charlestown Elementary School necessitating the acquisition of school sites, the expansion of existing educational facilities, and the construction of new educational facilities. F) The fees established by this article are derived from, based upon, and do not exceed the costs of providing for the Educational Facilities necessitated by new land developments for which the fees are levied. Such costs are established by the Capital Improvement Plan of the Chariho Regional School District. G) The report entitled “Town of Charlestown, Rhode Island Growth Management Program, Phase 2 - Impact Fees,” dated February 16, 2000, sets forth a reasonable methodology and analysis for the determination of the impact of new development on the need for and costs of additional school sites and educational facilities in Charlestown. A) The fees established by this Article are consistent with and are intended to assist in the implementation of the Charlestown Comprehensive Plan. B) The purpose of this Article is to regulate the use and development of land so as to assure that new development bears a proportionate share of the cost of capital expenditures necessary to provide public educational sites and facilities, as mandated by the State. A) A fee payer is a person commencing a subdivision or land development project which may reasonably be expected to place students in the public schools of the Chariho Regional School District, place additional burdens on the Town’s Educational Facilities and which requires the issuance of a building permit for one or more new residential buildings. B) Educational Facilities are those capital projects undertaken by the Chariho Regional School District to accommodate existing and future Charlestown school-age pupils. Such facilities may be located within Charlestown or within the regional area serviced by the Chariho Regional School District. C) Reserved – (Town Facilities) D) Capital costs of Educational Facilities are expenditures for the acquisition of fixed assets or additions to fixed assets and expenditures for site acquisition, construction, design, site development, necessary off-site improvements, and capital equipment pertaining to such facilities. E) Subdivision or land development projects which may reasonably be expected to place students in the public schools of the Chariho School District, means any change in land use or any construction or installation of residential buildings or structures. F) Independent fee calculation study means the demographic and/or educational impact documentation prepared by a fee payer to allow the determination of the impact fee other than by the method established by this ordinance. § 218-144 Imposition of Capital Facilities Impact Fee Any person, after the effective date of this ordinance, applying for a residential building permit; an extension of a residential building permit issued prior to the effective date of this ordinance; is hereby required to pay a facilities impact fee in the manner and amount set forth in this ordinance. § 218-145 Computation of the Amount of Facilities Impact Fee The requirement of funds for provision of School Facilities shall be based upon needs as established by the Capital Improvement Program of the Chariho Regional School District and shall be consistent with the policies stated therein. The Building Official is charged with the administration of the section. The fee amount shall be based upon the following: A) A fee schedule for Educational Facilities, per residential dwelling unit, shall be established by the Town Council annually for the fiscal year, as part of the Town’s adopted Capital Improvement Program. B) The fee payer is required to pay the fee as established annually by the Town Council. If a fee payer disputes the impact fee determined as described herein, then the fee payer may appeal the decision of the Building Official to the Zoning Board of Review in accordance with § 218-28 and may submit an independent fee calculation study for the land development activity for which a building permit is sought. The student generation and/or educational impact documentation submitted shall show the basis upon which the independent fee calculation was made. A) The fee payer shall pay the educational facilities impact fee required by this ordinance prior to the issuance of a building permit, to the Building Official. B) All funds collected shall be properly identified and promptly transferred for deposit in the capital facilities impact fee trust fund to be held in a separate account as determined in § 218-147 of this ordinance and used solely for the purposes specified in this ordinance. § 218-147 Capital Facilities Impact Fee Trust Fund Established A) There is hereby established a separate capital facilities impact fee trust fund to be administered by the Town Treasurer. B) The Town Treasurer may invest unused portions of the fund, provided that sufficient amounts are available to make payments for the use of the funds are provided herein. C) Funds withdrawn from this account must be used in accordance with the provisions of § 218-148 of this ordinance. A) Funds collected from capital facilities impact fees and deposited in the capital facilities impact fee trust fund by the Town Treasurer for the purpose of constructing Educational Facilities. Such funds, when remitted to the Chariho Regional School District, shall be spent solely to acquire, construct, expand, and equip the educational sites and educational capital facilities necessitated by new development. B) The Town of Charlestown and the Chariho Regional School District will enter into an appropriate memorandum of agreement (MOA) to ensure proper use of the funds collected pursuant to this ordinance. C) Funds may be used to make refunds required by § 218- 150 of this ordinance. Any funds not expended or encumbered by the end of the calendar quarter immediately following ten (10) years from the date the capital facilities impact fee was paid shall, be paid to the current owner of record for the Assessor’s Plat and Lot for which the fee was paid. The refund shall include the actual interest collected by the Town Treasurer on the fee paid. The landowner shall submit an application for a refund to the Building Official within one hundred eighty (180) days of the expiration date of the ten (10) year period. Failure to apply within the specified time period shall indicate a waiver for such refund. A) Alterations or expansion of an existing residence. B) The construction of accessory buildings or structures. C) The replacement of a destroyed or partially destroyed residential building. D) Nonresidential buildings and structures are exempt. E) Any housing developments approved pursuant to §218-27, Low and Moderate Income Housing, are exempt. F) Building Permit applications submitted and deemed complete on or before the effective date of this Article for construction of residential dwelling units pursuant to §218-4 of this Ordinance, and the following: (1) Elderly Housing – Dwellings which would contribute to meeting the year-round needs of elderly citizens through enforceable restrictions limiting occupancy to households whose members are sixty-two (62) years of age or older. Such restrictions would typically include deed restrictions running with the land and/or covenants imposed by the applicant and monitored by the Planning Commission. (2) Retired Adult Communities – Planned developments for retired citizens, with amenities, established through publicly enforceable restrictions limiting occupancy to residents whose members are fifty-five (55) years of age or older. (3) Multifamily Dwellings – Multifamily dwellings, pursuant to Article X of this Ordinance having zero-bedroom (studio) or one-bedroom units, and which do not exceed a total of eight hundred (800) square feet of floor area per dwelling unit. (4) Accessory Family Dwelling Unit, as defined in §218-5, and provided in §218-93 of this Ordinance. § 218-152 Calculation of the Impact Fee A) The capital improvement costs set forth in the Memorandum to the Chariho Revision Committee authored by Ed Humble, MGT of America, Inc., January 7, 1999, at page 1, times the actual percentage share that Charlestown pupils represent within the total Chariho student body as calculated by the Chariho School Administration on October 1, 1999, divided by the total number of existing dwelling units, as provided on January 31, 2000 by the Tax Assessor. B) The Impact Fee for all educational facilities shall be recalculated and approved by the Charlestown Town Council on or before March 1, to be effective on or after March 1, following such recalculation and approval, in any year, based on updated figures, as available and based on the following formula: The effective date of this Article for the purpose of assessing the impact fee established herein shall be the date of its enactment. Any application for a building permit shall be subject to the Impact Fee as required herein. This Article shall supercede any and all ordinances inconsistent herewith.
This Ordinance shall take effect upon its passage. |
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