SAWS votes to increase impact fees on new construction

SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Water System (SAWS) has voted to propose a roughly 23 percent increase to impact fees on new builds. Impact fees are used to pay for capital improvements that are required to service new developments.

While exact fees are assessed according to where a specific development is occurring, the minimum a developer can expect to pay in impact fees is currently at least $5,902 per standard residential lot. Under the proposed increase, those numbers swell to $7,343 at the lower end and $11,528 at the higher end.

The increase comes from an assessment made by Carollo Engineers, who expect population inside SAWS’ service area to increase by 25 percent.

That growth will require $2.3 billion in capital improvements to the city’s water and wastewater systems, of which $465 million is eligible to be recouped by collecting impact fees from new development. ​