{"id":2223944,"date":"2024-04-18T08:04:02","date_gmt":"2024-04-18T12:04:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/impact-fee-programs-like-one-in-pitkin-county-unconstitutional-attorney-says\/"},"modified":"2024-04-18T08:10:52","modified_gmt":"2024-04-18T12:10:52","slug":"impact-fee-programs-like-one-in-pitkin-county-unconstitutional-attorney-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/impact-fee-programs-like-one-in-pitkin-county-unconstitutional-attorney-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Attorney claims Pitkin County&#8217;s impact fee program is unconstitutional"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fimpact-fee-programs-like-one-in-pitkin-county-unconstitutional-attorney-says%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2223944&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>An attorney from a U.S. Supreme Court\u2063 case that found &#8220;substantial&#8221; impact \u2063fees unconstitutional in California argues that similar fees in Pitkin County, Colorado, are also unconstitutional. The\u200c case, Sheetz v. County of El Dorado, focused \u200con a resident facing a $23,420\u2064 traffic impact\u2063 fee for \u2063a building permit, emphasizing the conditions&#8217; essential\u2062 nexus and rough proportionality\u2064 principles. Pitkin County, home to Aspen,\u200d has high real estate\u200b prices and\u2064 notable development fees for affordable housing and roads.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>(The Center Square) \u2013 An attorney who worked on a recent U.S. Supreme Court case striking down a local government\u2019s use of \u201csubstantial\u201d impact fees in California says similar fees in Pitkin County, Colorado, also are unconstitutional.<\/p>\n<p>The court\u2019s <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/pacificlegal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/2023-06-23-George-Sheetz-v-County-El-Dorado-Cert-Petition.pdf\">ruling<\/a><\/strong> in Sheetz v. County of El Dorado centered on a resident who wished to build a prefabricated house on his property, but the county charged a $23,420 traffic <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pennsylvania-pipeline-capacity-problem-persists\/\" title=\"Pennsylvania pipeline capacity issue remains\">impact fee<\/a> for a building permit. <\/p>\n<p>The court, using a two-part test \u201cmodeled on the unconstitutional conditions doctrine,\u201d said permit conditions must have \u201cessential nexus\u201d to a local government\u2019s land-use interests and must have \u201crough proportionality\u201d to a development\u2019s impact.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA permit condition that requires a landowner to give up more than is necessary to mitigate harms resulting from new development has the same potential for abuse as a condition that is unrelated to that purpose,\u201d the majority opinion written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett said.<\/p>\n<p>Pitkin County, where Aspen is located, is known for its multi-million dollar real estate listings and has the highest median home price in Colorado at $953,650, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nar.realtor\/research-and-statistics\/housing-statistics\/county-median-home-prices-and-monthly-mortgage-payment\">according<\/a><\/strong> to the National Association of Realtors.  <\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s also known for having <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/university-of-michigan-demands-1200-for-china-documents\/\" title=\"University of Michigan Demands ,200 for China Documents\">high fees<\/a> on development that go towards paying for affordable housing and roads. The Center Square previously <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecentersquare.com\/colorado\/article_4ab1b300-e165-11ee-afe8-5f999ba967d7.html\">reported<\/a><\/strong> on a lawsuit against the county by billionaire developer Jeffrey Soffer over nearly $1 million in impact fees for affordable housing. <\/p>\n<p>The county\u2019s Employee Housing Impact Fee is used \u201cto mitigate the increased demand for housing caused by employment generation associated with approved development,\u201d according to county documents. <\/p>\n<p>The county\u2019s most-recently updated fee subsidy calculator shows a 6,000 square foot, locally occupied unit would have a fee of almost $98,000. The same size unit that\u2019s not locally occupied would have a fee of almost $382,000. <\/p>\n<p>The county estimates that the cost of its impact fee on what it described as a \u201csecond home\u201d that was greater than 9,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/kroger-closing-more-stores-due-to-seattles-mandated-hazard-pay-for-workers\/\" title=\"Kroger Closing More Stores Due To Seattle\u2019s Mandated \u2018Hazard Pay\u2019 For Workers\">000 square feet<\/a> was $488,047. That impact fee is used to subsidize the housing of employees who come to work for the county.<\/p>\n<p>For the county\u2019s Road Impact Fee, a 1,000 square feet residential addition would amount to a $5,468.12 fee. <\/p>\n<p>The Pacific Legal Foundation, which served as co-counsel in the Sheetz v. County of El Dorado case, said fee programs like Pitkin County\u2019s Employee Housing Impact Fee are forbidden under the unconstitutional conditions doctrine.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis sort of fee program, which seeks to force individual homeowners to pay to address such quintessential public problems as affordable housing, is precisely what the doctrine of unconstitutional conditions forbids,\u201d PLF Senior Attorney Brian Hodges, who worked on the El Dorado County case, told The Center Square. \u201cThankfully, the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s decision in Sheetz v. County of El Dorado protects property owners from permit extortion by holding such fees subject to review under the doctrine\u2019s heightened standard of review.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pitkin County has not made any changes to its impact fees in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s ruling, County Manager Jon Peacock told The Center Square. He did not immediately respond to follow-up questions.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An attorney involved in a recent U.S. Supreme Court case, Sheetz v. County of El Dorado, deeming &#8220;substantial&#8221; impact fees unconstitutional in California, argues that Pitkin County, Colorado, similarly imposes unconstitutional fees. The case revolved around a resident&#8217;s construction rights<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2223945,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/AP23109685541390-1024x683.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2223944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/AP23109685541390-1024x683.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2223944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2223944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2223944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2223945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2223944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2223944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2223944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}