What are Impact Fees and who pays them?

Impact Fees are charged to new homes and new commercial structures to cover the cost the City incurs to provide services for those new structures. Currently the city charges impact fees for water, sewer, storm sewer, roads and parks.
These fees are used in one of two different ways. First, these fees are used to construct new structures, like widening roads or building storm detention basins to accommodate the increased need for vehicles or storm water runoff. Second, these fees can be used to pay the City back money for infrastructure already completed. In our City, the sewer lines have been oversized to accommodate future home construction to avoid having to dig up and redo the entire system every time another 500 homes are added to the City.
Impact Fees are not able to be used for maintaining a system or for salaries for employees so the finance department keeps a separate detailed ledger of impact fees as they come in and go out to verify they are being spent according to state law.
Currently the City collects $10,307 from every new single family home as well as an additional $2,626 in impact fees passed on to North View Fire District and the Central Weber Sewer Improvement District.

Land Use Permits: What are they for, and when
do I need one?

A central purpose of the planning profession is to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the citizens planners serve. The employees of the North Ogden Planning Department act with this purpose in mind, and view their day-to-day duties through this lens. In addition to protecting the well-being of the residents, the Planning Department works with citizens to help them exercise their rights as land owners. While doing this, members of the Planning Department staff must ensure that the rights of all the residents are not unreasonably infringed upon as contemplated in the city code.

One way the planning department protects the rights of North Ogden city residents is by requiring a land use permit application to be completed before improvements can be made to a piece of property within the city. Land use permits are used by the planning Department to ensure that a property owner who would like to build a fence, install or build a shed, or add concrete to their lot are able to do so, within the requirements of the North Ogden City zoning code. This ensures that both the property owner’s interests, the interests of their neighbors, and the City as a whole are considered as together they review the proposed changes or additions to a property to ensure they are consistent with the City’s adopted zoning code.

An example of a common project that would require a land use permit is adding a concrete patio or RV parking pad. Increasing the amount of concrete, or other hard surface, on a lot reduces the amount of land that can absorb rain or runoff water. Since the storm water is not retained on site, it enters the storm sewer system. This creates an impact on the storm sewer system, leading to increased service fees. If too much storm water enters the storm sewer system, it can cause problems such as overwhelming detention basins. To reduce the demand on the storm sewer infrastructure, the city has created a minimum vegetative area requirement for all zones across the city. This ensures much of the storm water is absorbed on site by the soil and does not enter the storm sewer system. The North Ogden City Zoning Code exists, in part, to prevent this and similar problems.

Once a land use permit application has been received, a member of the planning staff examines the proposed additions, or changes, to the property for compliance with the city zoning code. If the project is compliant with city ordinances, then the
department will look at the dedication plat, available to everyone on the Weber county website. A dedication plat is a map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. It describes the piece of land, its boundaries, lots, roads, and
easements. Additionally, it sometimes shows any special restrictions on the land, such as unstable soil, flood zones, high groundwater, etc. If the proposed addition or change to the property is consistent with the zoning code, and there is nothing indicating a hazard, or special requirement, on the dedication plat, the land use permit will receive a signature of approval by a member of the planning staff and the applicant will be notified of the decision.

If a proposed project does not meet the zoning ordinance or there is a special restriction on the lot, a member of staff will contact the applicant to inform them of the restrictions or any needed changes. In these instances, if the project can work with modifications, City Staff works with the applicant to provide options that will allow the applicant to modify the proposed project so that it will conform to city code before work begins. If you have a have any questions regarding land use permits, zoning, or planning, please contact a member of the North Ogden staff at 801-782-2215.

Projects that require a land use permit:
• An accessory building up to 200 square feet in size. (Any accessory building larger than 200 sq. ft. requires a building permit.)
• Adding any impermeable surface such as concrete or asphalt.
• When adding any fence.
• Decks require a building permit (not a land use permit).
Information needed to process an application:
• A site plan drawn to scale that shows the actual dimensions of the lot to be built upon with the size and location of existing buildings or structures (see below).
• The square footage of existing concrete\asphalt on the lot.
• The square footage of proposed concrete\asphalt.
• The square footage of the existing building footprint.
• Plans and dimensions for any proposed structure, including height.
• A site plan showing the dimensions of the proposed project and distances from property lines.
• Any other site specific information.