Leaders discuss “public inconvenience fee” in Columbia

Business and city leaders discussed the possibility of a “public inconvenience fee” for developers that close roads and sidewalks.

Mayor Brian Treece pushed for the plan in the summer, when it approved the various closures of Elm, Fifth and Sixth Streets for a new downtown apartment complex. The new Brookside apartments are set to open for the start of the 2017 school year.

Two other apartment complexes are in the works downtown – a 700-plus unit structure on Fourth Street from American Campus Communities and the ten-story Rise Apartments at Ninth and Locust Streets. They’ve led to street and sidewalk closures since they started.

The Downtown Columbia Leadership Council hosted a public hearing Monday night at City Hall to get input on the fee structure and plan. Developers would need to pay 20 cents for each foot of sidewalk it closes, 30 cents per foot of a parking spot, 35 cents per foot of road and 2 cents per foot of alleyway for each day of the closure. The developer can waive the payment if it keeps the public right-of-ways open during construction, and can qualify for a 70 percent reduction in each charge if it opens them up from 7 p.m. and 6 a.m.

Local engineers and business interests attended the meeting to voice both support and concern with the plan. Tom Trabue, a partner in THH, Inc. said he felt a fee for closing public rights-of-way was appropriate. However, he was concerned the fees could disproportionately affect smaller property owners. Performing routine maintenance, like tuckpointing, would require many storefronts to close an entire sidewalk block for at least some of the work, and a fee may discourage them to close it.

“I’ve seen this in so many communities that we’ve been in,” Trabue said. “That’s just virtually important that we provide a way for these folks to maintain their buildings.”

Representatives with the Columbia Chamber of Commerce felt the rules should only apply downtown. Closures there inconvenience car and foot traffic far more than closures in residential areas.

Currently, public bodies like school districts are exempt from the fees. Many at the meeting felt developers should avoid paying the fees if their closure is for improvements to public resources, like sewer and storm water pipes. Catalyst, the developer of the Brookside property, is replacing a pipe in their area, while crews for the Rise Apartments replaced a sewer line along Ninth Street.

The DCLC will make its final recommendations at its November 22 meeting. The council will then consider the proposal, and vote on it in December.