The City of Boerne Impact Fee Advisory Committee met (date not specified) and heard a status report from staff member Andrew Wilkinson on impact-fee collections, recent state law changes including SB 14, and a recommendation to begin a land-use and capital-improvement-plan review now because project costs have risen.

Wilkinson told the committee that impact fees are charged to recover infrastructure investment tied to new development and are authorized under the Local Government Code (chapter 395 as cited in the meeting). "Impact fees are assessed at the time of planning," he said, and noted that the fees are typically collected at utility application and held in separate interest-bearing water and wastewater accounts.

The presentation reviewed the city's current ordinance (adopted in May 2023) that set a combined maximum fee of $7,629 per 1 LUE (equivalent to a 5/8-inch meter). Wilkinson said collections have increased since May, with total impact-fee collections rising to $4,000,145.09, an increase of about $2 million since the last meeting. He described ongoing and planned CIP work that will be funded by those accounts, including a water-treatment-plant expansion (pilot study complete, design expected this fiscal year), the Ammon Road tank and pump station (under construction), a reclaimed-water storage tank and pump station (final design wrapping up), and two phases of wastewater treatment expansions (from ~1.4 MGD to 2.1 MGD, then to 3.9 MGD). Wilkinson said design-phase estimates show "significant cost increase[s]" on several projects.

Wilkinson summarized recent state-law changes affecting impact fees. Key changes the committee was told to plan for include:
- A two-thirds vote of the governing body (four of five council members) is now required to impose or increase impact fees, rather than a simple majority.
- Impact fees cannot be increased for three years after adoption or a most-recent increase; because the last ordinance was adopted in May 2023, a staff estimate showed the earliest increase would be May 2026.
- An independent financial audit specific to any proposed new or increased impact-fee must be completed by an auditor who has not done business with the city in the prior 12 months and must be published at least 30 days before the first publication of hearing notice (staff stated land-use assumptions and CIP must be made available to the public at least 60 days before the first publication of a notice of hearing).
- SB 14 requires political subdivisions to provide an impact-fee credit to a developer or builder for the construction, contribution, or dedication of eligible facilities, systems, or products that result in reuse, conservation or water savings. Wilkinson said the law is vague about calculation methods and that the city will need to establish procedures and formulas to award credits fairly.

"This SB 14 item is probably the biggest update," Wilkinson said, adding that staff and legal counsel are coordinating with consultants to draft ordinance language to comply with the law in time for the Jan. 1, 2026 effective date.

Committee members pressed staff on how the new audit requirement and the three-year restriction would work together, particularly whether auditors can or should account for inflation or projected costs over the hold period. "We don't have an answer right now," City attorney McKamey said. "You're gonna have to guess, really, and then the audit's gonna have to, I suppose, bless an educated guess as to what these costs are gonna be a couple years down the road." Commissioner Heiler voiced concern about the new rules' burdens on municipalities: "I knew the development lobby was strong in Austin, but I had no idea how strong. These are really onerous provisions placed upon municipalities to try to recapture costs associated with development."

Because staff is seeing higher cost estimates in current design work, Wilkinson recommended starting the land-use assumptions and CIP study now rather than waiting until the scheduled 2028 update. He said doing so would let staff evaluate whether fee changes are warranted and to prepare the independent audit and ordinance changes for council consideration, with a potential package to council by December.

The committee approved the minutes from the May 5, 2025 meeting by voice vote after a motion from Commissioner Heiler; a second was announced during the proceeding but was not identified by name on the record. The advisory committee adjourned and scheduled a possible earlier meeting to update members if staff begins the land-use/CIP study.

Next steps noted by staff: refine ordinance language to implement SB 14's credit mechanism, begin coordination with the city's legal counsel and consultant on the land-use/CIP review, procure an independent auditor if staff pursues fee adjustments, and return to the advisory committee and city council with proposed language and findings.