For only having started its second full school year, the Dixie Montessori Academy—located in the Green Springs subdivision in Washington City—has already faced several challenges. Early on, the charter school dealt with a lawsuit from a citizen’s group comprised of Green Springs residents regarding the location of the school. Some of the concerns from residents in the area were about increased traffic through the neighborhood. The latest concern involved the assessment of $634,926 in impact fees for Dixie Montessori Academy assessed by the City of Washington. However, in a recent statement from Washington City Manager Roger Carter, this issue has been resolved.
Previous to the resolution, the concern expressed by Dixie Montessori Academy regarding the impact fees was whether Washington City had correctly calculated the high-dollar fees. Both the property owner— The Boyer Company— and the Dixie Montessori Academy stated that they believed the impact fees were illegal.
A letter from Washington City Manager Roger Carter dated Sept. 11, 2015, stated that Washington City has collected, to date, $139,638.00 in impact fees.
“We have had under dispute a fee of $634,926.00 in street impact fees,” the letter stated. “In cooperation with the Boyer Company we agreed to have the Utah Property Rights Ombudsman provide an advisory review on the imposition of the street impact fee upon the Dixie Montessori Academy. On July 10, 2015, the Ombudsman office released their review, indicating, that in their opinion, Washington City could not impose a street impact fee upon the school.”
The letter continued to say that Carter had reviewed the Ombudsman’s opinion with the Washington City Council and agreed to comply with the recommendation from Ombudsman’s office.
“Therefore, I wanted to inform you that Washington City will not be requesting street and roadway impact fees from Dixie Montessori and that the City considers all impact fees paid in full, as of today.”
Julie Wand, the director and principal of the Dixie Montessori Academy told The Independent that the parents and school were overjoyed by the decision regarding the impact fees.
“We know this situation has not been easy for anyone, but in the end they made the right decision,” Wand said.
It is seriously annoying that this school would be forced to go through the shenanigans of fighting this in the first place.