It’s about to cost more to build housing in Anaheim Hills after City Council members unanimously voted to raise sewage fees on new developments in a town that’s grappling with rocky budget projections.
It comes after Disney-backed Anaheim City Councilwoman Natalie Meeks opposed a proposal for a 3% gate tax on Disneyland last month, arguing that the city should look at ways to attract more businesses to the city’s canyon area to help generate revenue instead.
“How can we promote the canyon area to bring in more businesses? How can we drive some better sales tax revenues? Those are the types of things that we need to do and once again, that’s not what this policy does here,” said Councilwoman Natalie Meeks, who represents Anaheim Hills and much of the canyon area, at the Oct. 28 meeting.
[Read: Anaheim Officials Put Disneyland Gate Tax Proposal on Ice]
A week later, Meeks along with the rest of the city council voted unanimously to raise sewer impact fees in East Anaheim for new developments the same night as the Prop. 50 election.
“I am always reluctant to raise fees. I do think it’s important that when a new development or new project comes in that they pay their fair share of their impact on the infrastructure of our city so that the people already here don’t have to carry that burden,” Meeks said at the Nov. 4 meeting.
Now, developers looking to build in the Canyon and the Hills will have to pay 36% more on sewer impact fees than current developments.
The current sewer fee for a single family home is $491. Under the increase, the fee for a new single family home would be $667, according to a staff report.
“The fees will fund capital improvements needed due to new development, and will be adjusted annually,” said Rudy Emami, director of Public Works, at last Tuesday’s meeting.
The increase comes after city council members earlier this year grappled with a $60 million budget deficit – closing the gap through a mix of bonds and one-time spending.
Meeks wasn’t the only council member to argue that officials should try to generate business in the canyon instead of the gate tax last month.
“I’m really interested in attracting businesses to our canyon. I’m excited about the development on the horizon. I do have a concern that this may slow that development,” said Disney-backed Councilwoman Kristen Maahs about the gate tax proposal at the Oct. 28 meeting
Mayor Ashleigh Aitken also said officials should try to bring in more business to the canyon.
Disney-backed Councilwoman Natalie Rubalcava, who spearheaded the gate tax proposal, argued that the canyon has not generated a lot of revenue for the city during her tenure on council.
“I hope that you all will come back with some ideas other than the canyon, because I don’t see the canyon generating a significant amount of revenue like I do with this initiative,” she said at the Oct. 28 meeting.
Rubalcava’s proposal could have generated up to $164 million in tax revenue a year.
Marc Herbert, a resident and local government watchdog, questioned the fee increase.
“We were told last week that the tourism industry was very sensitive to a small gate tax and or parking fee. Yet, you have no problem raising a 36% increase on future developments in this area that you said last week you were looking towards for future economic development,” he said.
“Won’t that discourage new development?”
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.
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