Cranberry Township supervisors approved a “comprehensive update” this month to the municipality’s transportation impact fee program.

“Municipalities can require developers to pay for their future impact on the transportation network when they’re coming in,” township manager Dan Santoro said. “And we’ve been doing that since the very beginning.”

Santoro said the township was “one of the first communities in Pennsylvania” to enforce impact fees when they were legislated in the early ’90s.

And with supervisors authorizing a $145,200 study and program update through Herbert Rowland & Grubic on Dec. 7, the project represents the first full update in 10 years.

“You update the program every five years, but every 10 years you do a comprehensive update,” Santoro said.

The study will account for forecast growth and completed improvements in the township, according to Santoro, then “plugging them into” a new transportation model.

“It’s really a comprehensive update to our long-range transportation plan,” he said, “which then results in the fees that are charged to developers every time a new commercial building or single-family development or townhouse is built.”

Santoro said the fees are based on a “per trip” figure and do not apply to existing developments.

“For every new development, we calculate the number of new trips that development is going to generate, and then there’s a ‘per trip’ fee,” he said. “In Cranberry, it’s about $1,500 per trip.”

As an example, Santoro said each new single-family home built generates one trip, with a developer paying $1,500 for each new home built on the development.

“And for a new retail, commercial facility a traffic calculation is done,” he said. “So if they generated 100 new trips, then that would be 100 times $1,500 for $150,000.”

The impact fees are then reserved by the township for infrastructure projects, according to Santoro, helping to offset the growth.

“You can only use the funds on the improvements that are identified in that long-range transportation capital improvement plan,” he said. “That model, that forecast, generates what improvements are necessary.”

The ongoing improvements at the intersection of Route 19 and Progress Avenue are funded by impact fees, according to Santoro, as well as a portion of the Freedom Road expansion project.

“The MSA Thruway that was just completed a few years ago, a portion of that project was paid for by transportation impact fees,” he said. “The roundabouts that we’ve built up in different locations are paid for in part by transportation impact fees.”

The study and program update for the fees is expected to take eight to 12 months, Santoro said, with final approval up to the supervisors.

“We’re also required as part of this process to have what’s called an ‘impact advisory committee,’” he said. “It’s required under the law to be made up of real estate development community representation along with other representatives of the township.”

Despite the township’s growth over the last 10 years, Santoro said he didn’t expect “any surprises” from the study or the update.

“We’ve been on this path for three decades,” he said. “It just really updates some of the details of that transportation study and shows us where we need to focus next.”

Santoro said the township keeps a “pretty good handle” on its long-range transportation needs, and he expects the study will reflect the variety of demands throughout the municipality.

“Depending on where the development actually happens, the demand for the improvements shifts,” he said. “Whether it’s happening in the eastern side of the township or the western side of the township, or north or south, the priorities sort of change.”