By Scott Taylor,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – A $27,000 city fee for a Lisbon Street church’s expansion is a lot to expect, according Pastor Allen Austin.

Austin told City Councilors on Tuesday night that the fee, put in place to help pay for the future expansion of Lisbon Street, was about $20,000 higher than his church, the Vineyard Christian Fellowship, first thought. The church still plans to build a 1,000 auditorium on Foss Road.

“It’s not a matter of doing the expansion or not,” Austin said. “It’s a matter of being responsible with the generosity of my church. I’m trying to represent them.”

Councilors continued tinkering with the fee. Tuesday, they added language to give developers on side streets credit in the fee program.

But councilors are still confused by the impact fee and want to take another look at it later this month.

“All along, this whole thing has been mass confusion,” said Renee Bernier, the Ward 2 councilor. “I’m still not comfortable with it.”

Development along Lisbon Street was at standstill last summer because projects could not get approval from the state highway department. The four-lane road was deemed too busy, and any development that would increase traffic would have been required to make expensive changes.

Then, at that time, developer Nino Naous told councilors he would pay to re-stripe part of Lisbon Street, making it three lanes, in order to get a new convenience store approved. That would slow down traffic on the road and meet state requirements for most developments.

Councilors agreed, but feared it would also lead to a flurry of outer Lisbon Street projects that would overwhelm the road. They agreed to charge a fee on developments, which would be saved to help pay for the street’s future expansion. The fee is speculative, 5 percent of what developers would have had to pay to change Lisbon Street to five lanes.

For the church, that would have come to about $540,000, making the impact fee $27,000.

“That really is an unprecedented amount anywhere in the state,” the pastor said.

Councilors did change the fee, giving developers credit for work on side streets, Lisbon Street intersections and neighboring sidewalks. That cut the church’s fee by $3,000.

“That’s all we’re going to get tonight, unless the council changes the way the fee is collected,” said City Administrator Jim Bennett.

Councilors agreed to discuss the impact fee at a future workshop meeting.