The Planning Board approved a new town-wide traffic impact fee system by a 6-1 vote on Aug. 11, but not before tweaking the proposal to offset concerns raised by local developers.

Under the original plan, roadway construction cost assumptions included in the new fee system had been based on the full-depth construction of a mile-long, 34-foot wide, fully directional roadway with an estimated price tag of $2.1 million. Martin Kennedy, the town’s traffic impact fee consultant, told the board that by eliminating a 5-foot-wide shoulder on either side of the roadway accounted for in the original calculations, the cost could be reduced to $1.5 million per mile, resulting in a roughly 29 percent decrease in the proposed impact fees.

The board also opted to decrease all of the proposed impact fees by a further 10 percent and delayed the start of the new fee system until March 1, 2010, to allow developers currently working on projects within the community a six-month window to have their plans approved under the old impact fee system.

Any development project that has already received approval from the Planning Board will be grandfathered in under the old system as well, though later adjustments made to plans given the green light before the town-wide fee system goes into effect will be decided on a case-by-case basis.

The adoption of a new traffic impact fee system has been in the works for the past several years, according to Planning Director Ross Moldoff. Under the old fee structure – which was last adjusted for inflation in 1994 – impact fees were collected solely from projects along the Route 28 and Pelham Road corridors.

Though officials argued that a comprehensive, townwide traffic impact fee system that could be easily adjusted for inflation would make it easier for developers to work with the community in the future, members of the business community objected to the proposal as potentially having a dampening effect on the local economy.

Christopher Goodnow, of Goodnow Real Estate Services, told the board that even though the impact fees had been reduced, they still represented a dramatic increase in costs.

“A (29) percent reduction on a huge increase still means a huge increase, just a little bit less,” Goodnow said.

Board member Gene Bryant said that after three public hearings on the issue, the only differences that remained were philosophical.

“I believe we have shown that it is important that this system be townwide. I believe we’ve shown that the new fee system, which is very important, is based on sound science,” he said. “I believe that we’ve done our homework, and we’ve gotten to a point where the fee schedule that I see makes sense.”

Ronald Belanger was the lone dissenting voice on the board, arguing that the changes would dull Salem’s competitive edge over neighboring communities and increase the impact of the recession on the local economy.