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The City exempts certain housing from the impact fee requirement. They offer a sliding scale exemption depending on the incomes served by the development. The ordinance provides for a 100 percent exemption on the new impact fees for rental or non-rental housing that is occupied by families whose income does not exceed 80 percent of the area median and who pay no more than 30 percent of their income for rent or mortgage payment. A slightly less generous exemption is provided for housing serving families with 90 to 100 percent of the area median income. (Section 18.98.060) While the state enabling legislation does not allow an outright exemption of impact fee liability, Salt Lake City allocates money from the general fund to pay these fees.

In addition, the ordinance allows developers to claim a credit for any “net positive impact” of the development. The ordinance does not specify what constitutes a positive impact but it allows owners to claim the credit at any time between three and six years after payment of the impact fee. (18.98.070) Other features of the ordinance include timeframes for paying and spending the fees and procedures for refunding fees not used to produce new public infrastructure. (18.98.120)