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Higher costs will be in store for builders and developers in Portland if proposed system development charge rate increases for parks are approved by City Council.

Voters last year approved a bond measure to provide for parks maintenance and restoration, but there was no provision for expansion of capacity to keep up with population growth.

Portland Parks and Recreation wants more money to buy land and increase capacity for future parks, and that money, they hope, will come from SDC fees. Those dollars, according to the parks department’s website, can be spent only on capital improvements to increase parks’ capacity, and not for operations and maintenance.

are tacked onto building permit fees for new development, both residential and commercial. Development of the proposal to increase rates began in December 2012 via a task force of stakeholders appointed by Commissioner Nick Fish and parks director Mark Abbate, according to the parks department website; Commissioner Amanda Fritz endorsed the task force’s work when she took on parks oversight in 2013.

Public comments on the plan will be received by Portland City Council during its April 15 meeting at 2 p.m.

Instead of using five residential categories as in the past, ranging from single-room occupancy with a flat fee of $4,942 to single-family occupancy with a fee of $8,594, the new plan calls for residential rates determined by size. The lowest would be $5,454 for a new building smaller than 1,000 square feet inside the central city, and the highest would be $13,185 for a new house larger than 2,500 square feet outside the central city.

The proposed SDC parks fee for non-central city development would be more equitable, according to the parks department, because it would account for use of city parks by employees of businesses in areas outside the city center. As a result, the fee for a new non-central city warehouse of 122,640 square feet would jump from $6,623 to $24,528, the fee for a 10,000-square-foot retail building would go from $3,800 to $14,400 and the fee for a 15,000-square-foot industrial structure would go from $3,600 to $13,650.

The commercial SDC rate would continue to be based on a certain amount per square foot in five categories. Parks SDCs for a new hospital inside the central city, for example, would jump from $1.15 per square foot to $2.52. For a hospital outside of the central city, the rate would increase from 51 cents per square foot to $1.93.

Some stakeholders say the rates would be too high. Dave Nielsen, CEO of the Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Portland, said it’s not fair to more than double commercial rates and penalize people with big houses. He said that people with big houses are less likely to have an impact on public parks because they tend to have big backyards, as stated in a critique by the HBA in February.

鈥淚t is more reasonable to assume that the smaller urban multifamily units will use the city’s parks in greater numbers than the single-family home residents as they do not have the option of recreating in the front or rear yards or using local HOA parks,鈥� the report states.

But Jennifer Yocom of Portland Parks and Recreation said the SDC is based on the availability of the park system to everyone and is determined by the average number of persons in dwelling units, developed from data from the U.S. Census. Larger dwellings have an average of more people, she said, and Nielsen’s assertion 鈥渄oes not account for the fact that Portland Parks provides many, many recreational opportunities that are not available in the yards or HOA amenities of large homes.鈥�

Sandra McDonough, president and CEO of the Portland Business Alliance, last month stated in a letter to Abbate her concern about fee increases 鈥渨hile the city still lacks a plan鈥� for park maintenance.

The parks department states on its website that funding for all park maintenance will continue to come from the city’s general fund, which McDonough sees as a problem. She said her group endorsed the bond measure 鈥渨ith the provision that a long-term financing strategy 鈥� be developed for ongoing maintenance of city parks.鈥�

McDonough wrote that her organization is 鈥渆xtremely concerned鈥� with the negative impact of the increases on new development and that SDCs for parks are already among the highest.

McDonough suggested that a sliding scale be used for workforce and affordable housing developments, and added that the replacement value of Forest Park should not be included in the new rate proposal because 鈥渋t skews the level-of-service measurements.鈥�

She also urged the parks department to 鈥渒eep the recovery rate at 78 percent and not the proposed 86.6 percent.鈥� She suggested that higher fees could be phased in over time 鈥渢o minimize adverse impacts on development.鈥�

McDonough also complained that the proposed rate increases were not revealed until the task force’s final meeting in January.

鈥淎 better process would have been to allow this group of stakeholders to see, question, comment and review the actual proposed rate changes,鈥� she said.

But Yocom said the entire report was distributed to the task force at its Dec. 8 meeting.

鈥淭he task force had an additional month to consider those rates, and they were discussed again at their final meeting held on January 14,鈥� she said.

On the 14-member task force, Raihana Ansary represented the Portland Business Alliance and Justin Wilson represented the Home Builders Association. Other members include community members and representatives from the League of Women Voters, Coalition for a Livable Future, Portland Development Commission, Development Review Advisory Committee, Concordia University and the Portland Parks Board.

If City Council approves the proposed SDC rates for parks, they will take effect July 1.