Budget hearings are where developers see fee studies before adoption

Fort Worth's FY2026 archive records the sequence plainly. City Manager Jay Chapa presented the recommended budget on August 12, 2025. Budget meetings were held across council districts during August and September. A public hearing on the recommended budget and the regular-business-meeting vote were scheduled for September 16. The archive now states that the council approved the FY2026 budget on September 16, 2025.

The same archive links budget response 26-002, “FY2026 Recommended Fee Adjustments.” The 20-page response covers recommendations from several departments and begins a Development Services fee table on page 2. It says adoption of the recommended adjustments would be on the September 16, 2025 council agenda. The response describes the recommendations as effective as soon as October 1. That phrase marks possible earliest timing in a recommendation; it does not prove that every listed fee became effective that day.

For a project team reviewing the record in 2025, the budget presentation, district meetings, linked fee response, hearing, and council agenda offered separate checkpoints. The useful artifact was not merely the meeting date. It was the comparison document attached to the budget record, where a current charge and a recommended charge could be read before the scheduled action.

A fee study supplies analysis behind a possible charge. A proposed schedule states the amount or collection structure being recommended. Adoption is the governing body's action on the ordinance, order, resolution, or other item before it. A study can support a proposal without establishing the amount the city will collect. A recommendation can reach an agenda without proving the proposal passed or took effect.

Keep those records in order. Save the study or supporting plan with its date and scope. Save the proposed schedule with the affected service area, service-unit definition, and stated timing. Then save the action record and the final adopted text. If one link is missing, the file should still say “proposed” rather than silently carrying the number into a project budget as final.

Texas Local Government Code Chapter 395 adds requirements that should not be collapsed into a general budget calendar. Section 395.0411 requires the capital improvements plan to be developed by qualified professionals using generally accepted engineering and planning practices in accordance with Section 395.014. Section 395.014 assigns specified engineering descriptions and analyses to a qualified professional engineer licensed in Texas.

The advance-material clock is precise. Under Section 395.043, the land-use assumptions, projection period, and description of possible capital improvements must be available to the public at least 60 days before the first publication of the hearing notice. For an amendment, Section 395.054 applies a similar rule to the assumptions and capital improvements plan, including any proposed amended impact fee per service unit. The 60 days run before first publication of notice, not merely before the hearing.

Notice and action have separate 30-day rules. Section 395.044 requires certified-mail and newspaper notice before the 30th day before the initial plan hearing, and Section 395.049 applies that timing to an impact-fee hearing. The notice for the impact-fee hearing must state the amount of the proposed impact fee per service unit. Other provisions require approval or disapproval within 30 days after the applicable hearing. Amendment proceedings carry their own notice, comment, and action requirements.

The record also repeats. Section 395.052 requires the land-use assumptions and capital improvements plan to be updated at least every five years, starting from adoption of the plan. A budget document can point a team toward that work, but it does not replace the professional plan, public materials, notice, hearing, or action required by Chapter 395.

Once a fee document appears, translate it into project fields instead of saving a headline. Start with the current amount and the proposed amount. Add the service-unit basis and any project category shown in the source. Record which body is expected to act, what stage the item has reached, and the next stated date. Keep the source URL beside the entry so another reviewer can recover the table and its definitions.

Compare that record with the project's actual milestones. A filing, permit, connection, or closing date should not be treated as controlling unless the primary document and city guidance support that treatment. The checklist is a way to expose an unanswered timing question, not to answer it by assumption.

During August and September budget work, review each target city's budget archive and council agenda once a week. Open the attachments, not just the calendar entry. Search the packet for “fee study,” “recommended fee adjustments,” “fee schedule,” “impact fee,” “land use assumptions,” “capital improvements plan,” and “public hearing.” A match belongs in the project file only with its official source.

On the first pass, record the body, meeting date, document title, fee type, status, proposed amount if the document supplies one, and next scheduled action. On the next pass, check whether the source has changed from a study to a recommendation, from a hearing notice to scheduled action, or from scheduled action to an adopted record. Preserve the earlier document so the change can be explained later.

Share the list with development, engineering, finance, and deal leads while the numbers are still labeled correctly. The goal is not to predict a vote. It is to show which project assumptions rest on an adopted charge, which rest on a published proposal, and which still have no amount attached.

AgendaWire monitors municipal agenda sources and surfaces source-linked topic matches. It does not determine whether a charge applies to a parcel, filing, permit, utility connection, or contract. AgendaWire provides source monitoring, not legal advice. Confirm current requirements and project treatment with the city and your advisers before acting.