Title
Public Hearing - Biennial Certified Audit of Land Use Assumptions, Infrastructure Improvement Plan and Development Fees
Description
Request to hold a public hearing regarding the Biennial Certified Audit of Land Use Assumptions, Infrastructure Improvement Plans and Development Impact Fees, as required by State statute.
Report
Summary
Arizona Revised Statute 9-463.05 requires a biennial certified audit of municipalities' land use assumptions (LUA), infrastructure improvements plans (IIP) and development fees to be conducted by a qualified professional. The rule further specifies that the City shall conduct a public hearing on the audit findings within 60 days of posting the audit report on the City's website. Willdan Financial Services (Willdan) was retained to perform the biennial audit. The audit reviewed development impact fees and water resource acquisition fees for the period of July 1, 2020, through June 30, 2022.
The intent of the audit is to allow stakeholders who pay the impact fees to receive a third party analysis of the assumptions, plans and how fees are spent by each municipality. The next required biennial audit will review the period of July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2024.
The final audit report titled: City of Phoenix, AZ FY 2021 & FY 2022 Development Impact Fee Audit is available on the Planning and Development website at: phoenix.gov/pdd/devfees/impactfeedocs.
Biennial Audit Conclusions
Review of LUAs identified minor differences between projected and actual development but anticipates the development over the 10-year study period will not significantly vary from projections.
Review of the progress of the IIPs identified projects that were either accelerated from the projected schedule or delayed based on the projected schedule, but all project for which funds were expended were included in the adopted IIPs.
Review of collections and expenditures of the development impact fees for each project in the plan indicate that all expenditures made with development impact fee funds were on projects or debt expenses as identified in the 2020 Plan.
Evaluation of any inequities in implementing the plan or imposing the development impact fees indicates that the fees were assessed in an appropriate manner based upon the size and type of the development.
Review of sample permits did not identify any cases where a development was assessed an incorrect fee based on development type, square footage or meter size.
Public Outreach
A meeting was held with stakeholders on April 27, 2023, to review the audit report.
Department
Responsible Department
This item is submitted by Deputy City Manager Alan Stephenson and the Planning and Development Department.