Why the County charges fees on new development

The Council of the County of Kaua'i hereby finds and determines that the development and construction of new resort facilities, residential dwelling units and new commercial or industrial structures within the County may impose substantial impacts on the existing quality of life, social welfare, and ecology of the County, and threatens to have significant adverse effects on the water, land and air within and surrounding the County, and threatens to burden and overtax existing public facilities of the County which provide public services, highways, housing, police and fire protection, public utilities, water, and treatment and disposal of sanitary sewage, which thus pose a direct detrimental impact on the health, safety and general welfare of the County and its residents, and their environment.The Council further finds that the development and construction of new resort facilities, residential dwelling units and new commercial and industrial structures within the County creates an additional burden on the fiscal ability of the County to continue to provide adequate public services and capital improvements necessary to maintain and improve the quality of government services and public facilities currently enjoyed by the people of Kaua'i.The Council further finds that the implementation of the debt limitation upon the State's financial resources established by the 1978 Constitutional Amendment coupled with the severe financial constraints already placed upon the County will make it increasingly difficult to fund the necessary capital improvement projects for the County.The Council further finds and determines that the imposition and collection of a special, nonrecurring fee upon the development and construction of new resort facilities, residential dwelling units and new commercial or industrial structures within the County is the most practical and equitable method of providing revenues with which the County may meet and resolve the serious environmental problems and burdens on existing public facilities and services created by such development and construction.The Council further finds that the number of units in a resort complex or in a residential housing development tends to be reasonably proportionate to the physical impact on the environment and the fiscal impact on the financial resources of the County that the occupation of said units will have and on the extent of municipal services required to sustain such units and that the number of parking stalls servicing commercial buildings and the gross area of industrial buildings is a reasonable gauge of the impacts created by such buildings.The Council further finds that it is necessary to ensure that all assessments must be expended in a manner that is consistent with the provisions of Ordinance No. 371, an Ordinance Establishing Trust Fund for Contributions by Developers (Chapter 6). Consequently, all fees collected pursuant to this Chapter shall be paid into the trust fund account and distributed in accordance therewith.