Fee Fight

By Alison Rice. Builders battling impact fees can take heart from Duke Cox, a Colorado builder who just won such a fight in Silt, a mountain town near Aspen, Colo. Fees had escalated as high as $16,000 for a 2,000-square-foot house–more than twice what neighboring towns charged. After months of lobbying, the town voluntarily lowered permit and plan review fees by 15 percent. “They listened to reason and the facts and made the right decision,” Cox says. State officials expect more such skirmishes in the future. “When the economy suffers, local governments jack up the impact fees because it’s very politically easy,” says Rob Nanfelt, government affairs director for the Colorado Association of Home Builders. “It’s up to builders and developers to say, ‘We’ll pay our fair share, but not any more than that.'”