BUILDERS MAY GET A HELPING HAND.Byline: Sonia Giordani Daily News Staff Writer Hoping to keep commercial developers within Agoura Hills, the City Council will consider giving builders a break on the city's traffic impact fee. Currently, developers can begin construction after paying a one-time traffic impact fee, which helps finance more than $25 million in city road upgrades. With some developers facing formidable fees totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars, however, City Council members will discuss alternatives for builders that would allow them to begin construction after paying only a portion of the fee. Under a revised fee payment system, the balance would be paid during a three- to four-year period. ``We need to make it a little less onerous on·er·ous adj. 1. Troublesome or oppressive; burdensome. See Synonyms at burdensome. 2. Law Entailing obligations that exceed advantages. for developers than to make them write one big check,'' said Mayor Pro Tem [Latin, For the time being.] An abbreviation used for pro tempore, Latin for "temporary or provisional." A person who acts as a temporary substitute serves pro tem. Denis Denis, king of Portugal: see Diniz. Weber, who sat on a special subcommittee sub·com·mit·tee n. A subordinate committee composed of members appointed from a main committee. subcommittee Noun with council member Ed Corridori to consider the issue. The City Council established the traffic impact fee in 1988. Since then, the city has raised nearly $2 million in funds earmarked for upgrades to such arterial roads Noun 1. arterial road - a major or main route highway, main road - a major road for any form of motor transport Britain, Great Britain, U.K., UK, United Kingdom, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland - a monarchy in northwestern Europe as Kanan Road, Agoura Road and Reyes Adobe Road. Determined by a project's square footage and by its anticipated impact on city streets, the fee can range from $4.18 a square foot for a business park to $9.76 per square foot for a commercial shopping center shopping center, a concentration of retail, service, and entertainment enterprises designed to serve the surrounding region. The modern shopping center differs from its antecedents—bazaars and marketplaces—in that the shops are usually amalgamated into . As developments become larger and larger, however, developers can be required to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to the city before they can even begin construction. ``The significance of the change would be to allow developers to spread their payments over a longer period,'' said Jim Thorsen, city engineer. When the City Council approved the plans for his new 60,000-square-foot Reed's Furniture store north of the Ventura Freeway The Ventura Freeway is a freeway in southern California running from Ventura to Pasadena. It is the principal east-west route through Ventura County and in the southern San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County. to start building as soon as next month. ``I'm all ready to go forward, but now I'm not so sure I'm ready I'm Ready is the double platinum second release from R&B singer Tevin Campbell. I'm Ready yielded the biggest R&B hit of his career the #1 R&B smash "Can We Talk", and produce 3 more successful hits in "I'm Ready", "Always In My Heart" and "Don't Say Goodbye Girl". ,'' said Wickman, who faces a traffic impact fee of more than $350,000. Wickman opened a Reed's Furniture store in Agoura Hills two years ago. He said he paid nearly $200,000. ``The city says it is pro-growth and pro-business. Meanwhile, nothing happens,'' said Wickman, who hoped to pay the fee in 25 percent payments over four years. With more than 1 million square feet of proposed commercial development, the revision in traffic impact fee payments could help ensure that projects stay in the city. |
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