SAFFORD — The Safford City Council agreed to continue the waiver of 100 percent of building permit fees, in an effort to encourage construction of new single-family homes in the city.
However, the council rejected a proposal by Mayor Jason Kouts to increase the waiver of water capacity from the current 50 percent waiver to 100 percent.
Kouts, who is a general contractor who builds new homes, said he believes the increased waiver would spur more development.
“I’m trying to get it to where people want to build in Safford,” Kouts said.
Councilman Gene Seale explained that the council already voted for the 50-percent limit when the 2021-22 budget was approved, in order to keep the economic development fund solvent.
“If we keep it at the 50 percent . . . maybe next year or the year after we could do the same thing,” Seale said.
Alma Valles, the city’s Finance Director, said the water capacity fee waiver resulted in reimbursement out of the economic development fund of about $150,000 in fiscal year 2020. She estimates the economic development fund will have about $355,000 at the end of Fiscal Year 2021.
The waivers do not apply to commercial development, only to new single-family home construction.
The council also agreed to continue a 100-poercent waiver of sewer capacity fees for any homeowner in the city’s service area who agrees to abandon a septic system and connect to the city’s sewer system.
The vote was 6-1, with Kouts saying he opposed because he wanted the increased waiver of water capacity fees.
