Houston City Council approved changes to how the city collects fees to pay for city parks and recreational amenities.
What happened
Council approved amendments to the city’s Open Space ordinance at its regular meeting July 15. The ordinance provides parks, recreational amenities and open space for residential areas. It typically uses fees collected from developers to dedicate and maintain the parks.
Part of the amendment is for the system to become fee-only. Previously, developers were allowed to dedicate part of their land to open space or pay a fee in lieu of the dedication. The new ordinance now eliminates the option to dedicate land. This change is to comply with state law, council member Sallie Alcorn said.
The new fee was originally set at $700 per unit, but Alcorn said they are discussing what an appropriate amount would be.
More details
Alcorn also amended the ordinance to increase the amount of park dedication funds that can be used for indirect costs associated with obtaining and improving parks. The original ordinance allowed up to 5% of funds to be used for engineering, design, appraisal fees, environmental assessments and legal expenses. The amendment increases that amount to 10%.
“[Parks and Recreation Department] Director [Kenneth] Allen has indicated the need for additional funding for design,” Alcorn said. “Sometimes the bigger projects need design and they were limited in the way the ordinance was first written, and would like to increase that.”
The amendment, along with the new ordinance, was approved unanimously by council.
What else?
Part of the ordinance also approved using 30% of the fees collected from developers to be used in different park sectors, instead of only in the sector from which it was collected directly.
Park officials showed during a previous presentation that out of the city’s 21 park sectors, five brought in over $53 million.
Other changes to the ordinance include designating all territory as suburban, urban or Central Business District to meet criteria for setting the fees.
The updated ordinance went into effect immediately.
