A Guide to Impact Fees and Housing Affordability,

A Guide to Impact Fees and Housing Affordability, a new book from Island Press, makes a strong case for basing impact fees on development density and on the square footage of houses. As density goes down and square footage rises, service costs go up substantially for roads, fire protection, and other emergency services, police coverage, and water and sewerage, the authors demonstrate convincingly. Total costs per person for very low-density housing are $13,426 — 2.5 times that of the highest-density housing. The authors, Arthur C. Nelson, Liza K. Bowles, Julian C. Juergensmeyer, and James C. Nicholas, provide examples of how and where municipalities have based fees more closely to costs incurred.