May 15, 2026
Parks Impact Fee. The Parks Impact Fee ordinance hearing and potential change has been pushed back to June 3rd 5:30 PM at City Hall and we need all hands on deck to show up and speak up for this meeting. After months of ongoing conversation, the Council at a March 30th workshop agreed informally to move to change the current Parks Impact Fee to reflect a lower land acquisition value for new parks from the originally calculated $147,000 per acre to $89,000. The $89,000 figure is legally defendable in calculating the MAXIMUM amount of the fee. However, HBA, in a letter to Council on 4/30/26 is asking that they consider implementing the fee at 44% of that maximum amount. The request is based upon the fact that the City has only spent $2 million in the past ten years on acquiring new parks and with the fee implemented at 100% as recommended it would garner $13 million. Staff has yet to show where that huge increase would be spent since it may only be spent on acquiring park land. 44% would still mean a 300% increase in money available to purchase park property at $6 million estimated to be collected. There is an anticipation of pushback from staff and others at this request so we do need everyone to show up and if possible, make public comment (assistance in crafting those remarks is available). While the recommended reduction in the fee is already a “win” in terms of reducing housing costs, there is a potential to bring costs down even further and still provide sufficient funding for acquiring new parkland.
- Why This Matters. The new fee will provide significant savings on the Parks Impact Fee for new home construction. While the fee is calculated on a square foot basis and ranges from a cost savings $323 for 800 s.f. to $1351 for a 3500+ s.f. structure. Based on building permit activity in 2025 and using an average of $821 per home the total annual savings are $311.000. With a 44% reduction in land acquisition costs used to calculate the fee those savings could jump to an average of $1,084 per year.
Joint Grand Junction/Mesa County Housing Needs Assessment. The City has now completed the survey and feedback sessions for the Housing Needs Assessment. Sometime this summer there will be public presentations and adoption of the Housing Action Plan and 5 Year Consolidated Plan. This is where the rubber will meet the road and continued participation by the private sector in critical.
- Why This Matters: The Housing Needs Assessment and new Housing Action Plan can either help developers create more housing (by incentives, etc.) or serve as a barrier to building more housing inventory. It is important that the industry have a seat at the table to steer these documents from the beginning to the end to insure a favorable outcome for homebuilders and homebuyers.
Housing Affordability Task Force. The Task Force has requested that the City hire a consultant to help them with some of the most technical aspects of proposed changes including TEDS. There are also code changes in the works to loosen the restrictions on shared driveways for residential development and requirements for repurposing commercial/industrial properties to residential uses. Talks continue about bicycle storage facilities, significant trees and other possible code modifications.
- Why this Matters. The City Council has made affordable housing a priority and a majority of city council members are favorably included to make changes based on industry recommendations to the process and the code that will help lessen the regulatory burden and costs locally.
2025 Colorado Wildfire Resiliency Code (CWRC) Enforcement of the new code begins on July 1, 2026. Ground-Truthing is a formal process for verifying and updating the Colorado Wildfire Risk Assessment Fuels Map and any local WUI designations are accurate and reflect current conditions. The City of Grand Junction has scheduled a special developer’s workshop to discuss the application process for Ground-Truthing on June 17th with the fire department. Also, at the GJARA GAC meeting a local insurance provider shared that based on the maps current homes located in the highest risk areas are seeing premium increases and possible denial of homeowner insurance.
- Why This Matters. CWRC will require structurally fire resistant materials which will drive up the costs of new home construction and existing home remodels which are significant.
AMGD. Trent Prall discussed the City’s 2026 major projects including the completion of Four Canyons Parkway to 25 Road. A complete copy of his PowerPoint with projects listed is available upon request. There was also some back and forth about the Redlands Parkway trail being torn up and rebuilt. Next month on June 4th, representatives from the county will be discussing some new sampling requirements and other issues regarding the Total Maximum Daily Limits (TMDL) of pollutants in Mesa County Waterways.
- Why this Matters. Keeping up to date on state regulatory requirements impacting development is key to developing strategies to increase housing stock.
SWMM Update. There has been a process of presenting updates to the Stormwater Management Manual for public comment throughout this year but there are concerns that with everything else going on that not everyone has been as engaged as perhaps we should be. Representatives from the County have been asked to attend a working lunch in early June to discuss the updates and the process YTD. The timeline for adoption of the new manual is January, 2027.
- Why this Matters. Requirements in the SWMM affect the process and price of new home construction.