American Dream

RALEIGH - The Raleigh City Council is expected to reject a 72 percent increase in impact fees when it meets in April 18, but home builders beware - the reason Mayor Charles Meeker expects the proposal to be killed is that he and other city leaders want a bigger increase, perhaps as much as 400 percent. Raleigh's fee has hovered unchanged for 10 years. The proposal under consideration would raise the fees to $1,173 - a 72 percent increase that essentially would catch the rate up with the inflation of the past decade. That's not enough to satisfy Meeker, who says Raleigh needs to collect higher impact fee income to offset the cost of infrastructure improvements - specifically, new roads and parks - required by new housing developments. He cites a recent report that says Raleigh could charge a maximum of $3,404 in street and park fees, or 400 percent more than its current $682 rate.