Magnolia City Council voted to raise its impact fees per single-family connection at a May 10 regular meeting, which raises the cost for new developments to tap into the city’s water systems. Impact fees are one-time fees collected to fund a new water user’s share of the city’s water or wastewater capacity, Community Impact Newspaper previously reported.

City Administrator Don Doering said the impact fees were raised to $7,400 in total instead of $4,800 in total; the fee increase does not affect current customers, only new connections to the city's systems. The increase went into effect as soon as council approved it May 10.

A new connection to the city's water system will be $2,200, and a new sewer connection will be $5,200. These impact fees have not been raised since 2019 when they were raised to $1,600 for water and $3,200 for sewer, according to Doering.

“The increase in need for additional capacity required multiple new water plants and wastewater treatment facilities. ... Impact fees are needed to fund these much-needed improvements,” Doering said in an interview.

Doering said the city of Magnolia is growing and needs to have infrastructure in place before more people move to the city. The city has to fund construction of water wells and sewer plants, with a plan to build 11 wells and two sewer plants in the next 10 years, he said. With construction costs rising, he said the city needs more funds to put necessary infrastructure into place.