North Austin News

The City Council of Austin has recently adopted an updated parkland dedication fee schedule, in accordance with the passage of House Bill 1526 by the Texas Legislature. This bill, approved during the 2023 session, includes formulas that determine the fees, leaving no room for discretion on the part of the City of Austin to alter them.

Starting from January 1, 2024, the new fee schedule will be applicable to all multifamily and hotel/motel site plan and subdivision applications. However, it will not affect applications that are currently filed, nor will it impact single-family subdivisions filed now or in 2024, as these application types were excluded from the state bill.

To establish the new fees, the bill mandates that cities designate geographic areas within their municipal boundaries as CBD (central business district), Urban, and Suburban. Following a public hearing held on November 9th, 2023, the Council adopted these designated areas. It is now the responsibility of the cities to share these approved geographic areas with all appraisal districts within their boundaries and request data on average land values for each area.

The appraisal districts have now provided the requested data, which has been inserted into the state-prescribed formulas to determine the fees. It is important to note that the fees will be adjusted annually based on the consumer price index, while the average land values will be reset every ten years.

The current and proposed fees are as follows:

Current Fee Schedule:

- High Density: $3,801.53

- Medium Density: $4,919.63

- Low Density: $6,261.34

- Hotel/Motel: $2,372.15

New Fee Schedule:

Geographic Area - Per Unit Residential Formula - Per Hotel Key Formula

- CBD - $2,203.88 - $1,763.10

- Urban - $5,821.97 - $4,657.58

- Suburban - $6,815.53 - $5,452.42

The average land values per acre for each geographic area are as follows:

- CBD: $17,631,029

- Urban: $4,657,575

- Suburban: $1,363,105

These values were provided by the Travis County Appraisal District on November 30, 2023, with the Suburban values being prorated across three counties in accordance with HB 1526, Sec. 212.209 (d). The values provided by the Travis County Appraisal District, Hays County Appraisal District, and Williamson County Appraisal District on October 5 and 9, 2023, were used to calculate the average values.

In summary, the City of Austin has implemented an updated parkland dedication fee schedule, complying with House Bill 1526. This bill establishes formulas that determine the fees, leaving no room for modification by the city. The new fee schedule will be effective from January 1, 2024, for multifamily and hotel/motel site plan and subdivision applications. The fees will be adjusted annually based on the consumer price index, while the average land values will be reset every ten years.

To find out more, go to this link: https://www.austintexas.gov/news/updates-parkland-dedication-fee-schedule