Section 10505-A - Establishment and administration of impact fees(a)(1) The impact fee for transportation capital improvements shall be based upon the total costs of the road improvements included in the adopted capital improvement plan within a given transportation service area attributable to and necessitated by new development within the service area as calculated pursuant to section 504-A(e)(1)(iv)(C), divided by the number of anticipated peak hour trips generated by all new development consistent with the adopted land use assumptions and calculated in accordance with the Trip Generation Manual published by the Institute of Transportation Engineers, fourth or subsequent edition as adopted by the municipality by ordinance or resolution to equal a per trip cost for transportation improvements within the service area.(2) The specific impact fee for a specific new development or subdivision within the service area for road improvements shall be determined as of the date of preliminary land development or subdivision approval by multiplying the per trip cost established for the service area as determined in section 503-A(a) by the estimated number of peak hour trips to be generated by the new development or subdivision using generally accepted traffic engineering standards.(3) A municipality may authorize or require the preparation of a special transportation study in order to determine traffic generation or circulation for a new nonresidential development to assist in the determination of the amount of the transportation fee for such development or subdivision. The municipality shall set forth by ordinance the circumstances in which such a study should be authorized or required, provided however, that no special transportation study shall be required when there is no deviation from the land use assumptions resulting in increased density, intensity or trip generation by a particular development. A developer or municipality may, however, at any time, voluntarily prepare and submit a traffic study for a proposed development or may have such a study prepared at its expense after the development is completed to include actual trips generated by the development for use in any appeal as provided for under this act. The special transportation study shall be prepared by a qualified traffic or transportation engineer using procedures and methods established by the municipality based on generally accepted transportation planning and engineering standards. The study, where required by the municipality, shall be submitted prior to the imposition of an impact fee and shall be taken into consideration by the municipality in increasing or reducing the amount of the impact fee for the new development for the amount shown on the impact fee schedule adopted by the municipality.(b) The governing body shall enact an impact ordinance setting forth a description of the boundaries and a fee schedule for each transportation service area. At least ten working days prior to the adoption of the ordinance at a public meeting, the ordinance shall be available for public inspection. The impact fee ordinance shall include, but not be limited to, those provisions set forth in section 503-A(a) and conform with the standards, provisions and procedures set forth in this act.(c)(1) A municipality may give notice of its intention to adopt an impact fee ordinance by publishing a statement of such intention twice in one newspaper of general circulation in the municipality. The first publication shall not occur before the adoption of the resolution by which the municipality establishes its impact fee advisory committee. The second publication shall occur not less than one nor more than three weeks thereafter.(2) A municipal impact fee ordinance adopted under and pursuant to this act may provide that the provisions of the ordinance may have retroactive application, for a period not to exceed 18 months after the adoption of the resolution creating an impact fee advisory committee pursuant to section 504-A(b)(1), to preliminary or tentative applications for land development, subdivision or PRD with the municipality on or after the first publication of the municipality's intention to adopt an impact fee ordinance; provided, however, that the impact fee imposed on building permits for construction of new development approved pursuant to such applications filed during the period of pendency shall not exceed $1,000 per anticipated peak hour trip as calculated in accordance with the generally accepted traffic engineering standards as set forth under the provisions of subsection (a)(1) or the subsequently adopted fee established by the ordinance, whichever is less.(3) No action upon an application for land development, subdivision or PRD shall be postponed, delayed or extended by the municipality because adoption of a municipal impact fee ordinance is being considered. Furthermore, the adoption of an impact fee ordinance more than 18 months after adoption of a resolution creating the impact fee advisory committee shall not be retroactive or applicable to plats submitted for preliminary or tentative approval prior to the legal publication of the proposed impact fee ordinance and any fees collected pursuant to this subsection shall be refunded to the payor of such fees; provided the adoption of the impact fee ordinance was not delayed due to the initiation of any litigation challenging the adoption of such ordinance.(d) Any impact fees collected by a municipality pursuant to a municipal ordinance shall be deposited by the municipality into an interest-bearing fund account designated solely for impact fees, clearly identifying the transportation service area from which the fee was received. Funds collected in one transportation service area must be accounted for and expended within that transportation service area, and such funds shall only be expended for that portion of the transportation capital improvements identified as being funded by impact fees under the transportation capital improvements plan. Notwithstanding any other provisions of this act, municipalities may expend impact fees paid by an applicant on projects not contained in the adopted transportation capital improvement plan or may provide credit against impact fees for the value of any construction projects not contained in the transportation capital improvement plan which are performed at the applicant's expense if all of the following criteria are met: (1) The applicant has provided written consent to use of its collected impact fees or the provision of such credit against the applicant's impact fees for specific transportation projects which are not included in the transportation capital improvement plan.(2) The alternative transportation projects, whether highway or multimodal, have as their purpose the reduction of traffic congestion or the removal of vehicle trips from the roadway network.(3) The municipality amends its transportation capital improvement plan components required by section 504-A(e)(1)(vi) to provide replacement of the collected impact fees transferred to transportation projects outside the approved transportation capital improvement plan from sources other than impact fees or developer contributions within three years of completion of the alternative projects to which the transferred fees were applied or for which credit was provided. All interest earned on such funds shall become funds of that account. The municipality shall provide that an accounting be made annually for any fund account containing impact fee proceeds and earned interest. Such accounting shall include, but not be limited to, the total funds collected, the source of the funds collected, the total amount of interest accruing on such funds and the amount of funds expended on specific transportation improvements. Notice of the availability of the results of the accounting shall be included and published as part of the annual audit required of municipalities. A copy of the report shall also be provided to the advisory committee.(e) All transportation impact fees imposed under the terms of this act shall be payable at the time of the issuance of building permits for the applicable new development or subdivision. The municipality may not require the applicant to provide a guarantee of financial security for the payment of any transportation impact fees, except the municipality may provide for the deposit with the municipality of financial security in an amount sufficient to cover the cost of the construction of any road improvement contained in the transportation capital improvement plan which is performed by the applicant.(f) An applicant shall be entitled to a credit against the impact fee in the amount of the fair market value of any land dedicated by the applicant to the municipality for future right-of-way, realignment or widening of any existing roadways or for the value of any construction of road improvements contained in the transportation capital improvement program which is performed at the applicant's expense. The amount of such credit for any capital improvement constructed shall be the amount allocated in the capital improvement program, including contingency factors, for such work. The fair market value of any land dedicated by the applicant shall be determined as of the date of the submission of the land development or subdivision application to the municipality.(g) Impact fees previously collected by a municipality shall be refunded, together with earned accrued interest thereon, to the payor of such fees from the date of payment under any of the following circumstances:(1) In the event that a municipality terminates or completes an adopted capital improvements plan for a transportation service area and there remains at the time of termination or completion undispersed funds in the accounts established for that purpose, the municipality shall provide written notice by certified mail to those persons who previously paid the fees which remain undispersed of the availability of said funds for refund of the person's proportionate share of the fund balance. The allocation of the refund shall be determined by generally accepted accounting practices. In the event that any of the funds remain unclaimed following one year after the notice, which notice shall be provided to the last known address provided by the payor of the fees to the municipality, the municipality shall be authorized to transfer any funds so remaining to any other fund in the municipality without any further obligation to refund said funds.(2) If the municipality fails to commence construction of any transportation service area road improvements within three years of the scheduled construction date set forth in the transportation capital improvements plan, any person who paid any impact fees pursuant to that transportation capital improvements plan shall, upon written request to the municipality, receive a refund of that portion of the fee attributable to the contribution for the uncommenced road improvement, plus the interest accumulated thereon from the date of payment.(3) If, upon completion of any road improvements project, the actual expenditures of the capital project are less than 95% of the costs properly allocable to the fee paid within the transportation service area in which the completed road improvement was adopted, the municipality shall refund the pro rata difference between the budgeted costs and the actual expenditures, including interest accumulated thereon from the date of payment, to the person or persons who paid the impact fees for such improvements.(4) If the new development for which transportation impact fees were paid is not commenced prior to the expiration of building permits issued for the new development within the time limits established by applicable building codes within the municipality or if the building permit as issued for the new development is altered and the alteration results in a decrease in the amount of the impact fee due in accordance with the calculations set forth in subsection (a)(1).(h) Where an impact fee ordinance has been adopted pursuant to the other provisions of this act, the ordinance may impose an additional impact fee upon new developments which generate 1,000 or more new peak hour trips, net of pass-by trips as defined by the current edition of the Institute of Transportation Engineers Trip Generation Manual, during the peak hour period designated in the ordinance. In such case, the impact fee ordinance adopted under this act may require the applicant for such a development to perform a traffic analysis of development traffic impact on highways, roads or streets outside the transportation service area in which the development site is located but within the boundaries of the municipality or municipalities adopting a joint municipal impact fee ordinance or municipalities which are participating in a joint municipal authority authorized to impose impact fees by this article. Any such highways, roads or streets or parts thereof outside the transportation service area which will accommodate 10% or more of development traffic and 100 or more new peak hour trips may be required to be studied, and the ordinance may require the applicant to mitigate the traffic impacts of the development on such highways, roads and streets to maintain the predevelopment conditions after completion of the development.1968, July 31, P.L. 805, No. 247, art. V-A, § 505-A, added 1990, Dec. 19, P.L. 1343, No. 209, § 1, imd. effective. Amended 2000, June 23, P.L. 495, No. 68, § 13, effective in 60 days.