An Impact Fee is a fee that is imposed by a local government, in this case the City of Houston, on a new or proposed development project to pay for all or a portion of the costs of providing public services to the new development. Water and wastewater impact fees are commonly referred to as capital recovery or expansion fees. According to Chapter 47 of the Houston City Code, impact fees are applicable when a property owner is proposing a new development, redevelopment, an increase in building square footage.

Wastewater Capacity Reservation Application

In the City of Houston, the impact fee calculations and the water and wastewater reservations are accomplished through the Wastewater Capacity Reservation Application, or “WCR”, process. You can download a copy of a blank WCR form here.

Calculating Service Units

It’s easy to calculate impact fees. The first item you’ll need is the number of service units, which can be developed using the “Discharge Criteria Sheet“.

Calculating Impact Fees

Once the number of service units of capacity has been determined, the amount of $1,199.11 per service unit for wastewater and $626.50 per service unit of water must be paid to secure the capacity. If the project is a redevelopment project, wherein the existing development has already paid some impact fees, then a credit is available for the existing level of development.

Read about impact fees on the City of Houston website here.

Have additional questions about Impact Fees in the City of Houston and how they will affect your next development project? Give our Houston office a call at (832) 730-1901, or fill out a short contact form. We’d be happy to help answer your questions.