Local business leaders are concerned that a plan to update Salem’s system of traffic impact fees may put a damper on future economic redevelopment in the community.

According to Planning Director Ross Moldoff, the town’s current traffic impact fees have not been adjusted for inflation since 1994 and the system in place now is limited to projects on Route 28 and the Pelham Road corridor.

Moldoff said the Planning Board has been considering putting a new, comprehensive traffic impact fee system into place that would incorporate the entire town and make adjustments for inflation an easier process for the past several years.

“The problem was that if you built a big industrial building on Pelham Road, you paid a big impact fee. If you did the same thing on Lowell Road, you didn’t pay anything. The reason it applied to only those corridors is because they were considered the areas where the most growth was going to occur,” he said. “(The new system) will be able to be updated more easily, make the road impact fee system more fair and apply it to all areas of town. The negative part is that it is not a great time to be raising fees.”

Were the proposal begun in its current form, the fee attached to retail development would rise from $1 per square foot on the southern portion of Route 28 and $3 on the northern portion to a flat rate of $4, according to Moldoff. Office space near Stiles Road would rise from a $1 per square foot to $2.56. An impact fee of about $2,200 would also be attached to new single-family home construction across town, he said.

According to Chris Goodnow, of Goodnow Real Estate Services, the proposed changes come at exactly the wrong time to be raising impact fees in Salem. Goodnow said the impact of the new fees could put a chill on plans to redevelop the Route 28 strip and revitalize the Salem Depot while adding a tax burden onto the profit center of the town.

“Basically, an impact fee is a tax ... it’s a dramatic increase of this tax in an economic period where it is poor public policy to increase taxes,” Goodnow said. “If you view the town of Salem as a business, the residents enjoy the benefit of a very low real estate taxation relative to many communities in New Hampshire. They enjoyed that because of the large amount of commercial and industrial development that this community has been able to entertain.”

According to Jim Keller, chairman of the Planning Board, the change comes after a long lull during which the town’s impact fees were never changed for inflation.

The new system would also make the process of assessing fees simpler for the town and developers, he said.

For the moment, nothing is set in stone. The Planning Board held off on making a final decision on whether to begin the new impact fee system after Goodnow and other local business leaders voiced their concerns at a public forum held May 28.

Town employees expect to be able to address the concerns from the business community in time for a second public forum on the sometime in the next six weeks.

Joe Friedman, of Brooks Properties, is hopeful that the board will address the concerns raised by the business community last week the second time around. Friedman said there was a question of whether the board had taken into the account the impact the change would have on businesses considering a move to the community.

“It’s a very difficult times to raise fees,” he said.“We think it’s an extra tax on a specific part of the community. It certainly puts downward pressure on the ability to get tenants.”