Vicki Been (NYU) presents Impact Fees and Housing Affordability today at NYU as part of its Colloquium on Tax Policy and Public Finance series. Here is the part of the Executive Summary:

Approximately 60% of U.S. cities with more than 25,000 residents now impose impact fees to fund infrastructure needed to service new housing and other development. In California, the state in which impact fees are most heavily used, the average amount of fees 89 jurisdictions selected for study imposed on single-family homes in new subdivisions in 1999 was $19,552, with fees ranging from a low of $6,783 to a high of $47,742. While California jurisdictions impose fees that are higher—perhaps much higher—than those in other jurisdictions, impact fees are an increasingly important cost of development, especially in the fastest growing areas of the United States. The increasing use of impact fees, and the costs that they may add to the development process, raises serious concerns about the effect using impact fees to fund infrastructure will have on the affordability of housing. This paper explores that controversy.

The Colloquium will be held in Room 202 of Vanderbilt Hall from 4:00 – 6:00 p.m. EST. Although the public is invited to attend, due to heightened security throughout NYU Law, please contact Haydee Torres so she can provide the Guard’s desk with your name.