Park Impact Fees

Park impact fees are based on the Needs Assessment and Ordinance effective January 1, 2017. The fees include two components: Park-Infrastructure Impact Fee and Park-Land Impact Fee.

Increased 0.87% based on the Construction Cost Index.

Based on the city-wide average assessed value of land of $4.74/SF as of January 1, 2025.

Park Impact Fee Categories 

Per MGO 20.08(2), the following categories: 

Single-Family or Duplex: Includes all types of single-family dwelling units, including single-family detached dwellings, single-family attached dwellings and two-family dwelling units.

Multi-Family: Includes all three-family and multi-family dwelling units with three (3) or fewer bedrooms, as well as accessory dwelling units.

Large Multi-Family: Multi-family dwelling units with four (4) or more bedrooms.

Age Restricted Multi-Family: Multi-family dwelling units that are limited to occupancy by persons fifty-five (55) years of age or older by appropriate recorded restriction for a period of not less than thirty (30) years.

Group Living Quarters: A building, or portion thereof, that contains an assembly of five (5) or more bedrooms for monthly or longer-term occupation, and that includes shared bathroom and/or kitchen facilities. This category includes, but is not limited to, lodging houses, fraternity or sorority houses, housing cooperatives, and some cohousing communities.

Existing Unit Credits

The project will receive credit for any existing residential units that are planned to be removed within the development limits. Existing units can be found on the City Assessor’s Office website. 

Existing units should be entered into the form as a negative value. The address box on the form is only required for existing units.

Park Land Dedication

If parkland is being dedicated as part of the project, please contact Parks staff at parkimpactfees@cityofmadison.com to determine if any parkland impact fee in lieu of is required, per MGO 20.08(2)(c)4b.

Fee Adjustments

Park Impact Fee rates are adjusted on January 1 of each year. The fee rate applied is determined by the date a payment is received. If a payment is sent via mail, the payment date is the date the payment is delivered.

Payment Methods

Checks shall be made payable to the City of Madison Treasurer. Electronic payments cannot be accepted. Checks can be delivered or mailed to Madison Parks Administrative Offices at 330 E. Lakeside St., Madison, WI 53715. Please include the completed Park Impact Fee Deposit Form along with your payment

Park-Infrastructure impact fees and Park-Land impact fees shall be paid for this project. All park impact fees shall be payable in full, at the annually adjusted rate then in effect, at the time of issuance of any building permit under Chapter 29 of the Madison General Ordinances. Checks shall be payable to the City of Madison Treasurer. All questions, payments and deliveries shall be made to the office of the Madison Parks Division. Prior to City signoff on this project, the developer shall select one of the following options for paying these fees: 

1. Payment of all fees in a lump sum prior to City signoff on the project.
2. If the total park impact fees due for a development are greater than $100,000, the City, upon request, may accept a letter of credit, or other cash equivalent, from a developer to satisfy the impact fees, provided any such instrument is on terms and conditions acceptable to the Finance Director. The decision whether to accept such a form of payment is the City's alone.
3. Where the Developer has elected to defer the impact fee payments until such time as the building permits are applied for, the following shall be required prior to sign off of the project:
   1. The Developer shall execute a Declaration of Conditions, Covenants and Restrictions and an Impact Fee Schedule for all lots with outstanding fees due, which shall be recorded at the Dane County Register of Deeds and will serve as notification for future lot owners of the fees that are due and payable upon issuance of any building permit. A recording fee may apply.
   2. All outstanding Park-Infrastructure impact fees are indexed each year at the rate established by the Construction Cost Index, per the Madison General Ordinance Chapter 20. All outstanding Park-Land impact fees will be based on the city-wide average assessed value of land per square foot, as of January 1 of each year, per the Madison General Ordinance Chapter 20.
   3. The Developer shall put the following note on the face of the subdivision plat/CSM or development plans:
      1. Lots/Buildings within this subdivision/development are subject to Impact Fees that are due and payable at the time building permit(s) are issued.
4. If the total amount of impact fees due for a development, including park impact fees and other impact fees, will be more than seventy-five thousand dollars ($75,000), a developer may defer payment of the impact fees for a period of four (4) years from the date of the issuance of the building permit or until six (6) months before the City incurs the costs to construct, expand, or improve the public facilities related to the development for which the fee was imposed, whichever is earlier. If the developer elects to defer payment under this provision, the developer shall maintain in force a bond or irrevocable letter of credit, on terms agreeable to the City, in the amount of the unpaid fees executed in the name of the City. A developer may not defer payment of impact fees for projects that have been previously approved. A developer must elect the deferred payment option under this subdivision prior to the issuance of the building permit.

Low-Cost Housing Exemption

Pursuant to the authority established under Wis. Stat. § 66.0617(7), and in the interests of promoting the development of low-cost housing in the City, low-cost housing is exempt from park impact fees beginning January 1, 2017. This exemption only applies to those dwelling units or bedrooms within a development that are determined to be low-cost housing. This exemption does not extend to the land dedication requirements set forth under Sec. 16.23(6)(f), MGO, nor any other impact fees that may apply to a development.

Park impact fees will be exempt for developments that meet the “low-cost housing” requirements, as defined as rental or owner-occupied housing units that are affordable as that term is defined in Sec. 4.22(2), MGO, and which meet the deed restriction requirements of Sec. 4.22(7). The determination whether a proposed development will create low-cost housing, and how much low-cost housing it will create, shall be made by the Community Development Division. Please contact John Vogt (jvogt@cityofmadison.com) in the Community Development Division if you have questions about certifying units under the Low-Cost Housing Exemption.

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