BREWER – With a number of major development projects on the horizon, city councilors Tuesday night unanimously agreed to collect fees from developers and builders whose projects result in a need for new or improved infrastructure or services.

They also heard an update on progress toward a new city budget, appointed a new tax collector and debated the merits of the site being eyed for the new public works garage.

The cost-sharing program, soundly endorsed during a public hearing last month, was adopted under suspension of the rules after councilors unanimously agreed to do so.

Impact fees, Economic Development Director Drew Sachs said earlier, are one-time payments collected from builders or developers to help pay their share of the costs of new public infrastructure. The idea is to share costs with developers whose projects trigger a need for improved city infrastructure or services.

In Brewer, the fees will apply to major projects in the area bordered by Wilson Street, Parkway South, Interstate 395 and Chamberlain Street, now in the midst of a development boom.

Last summer, the city touched off the boom when it acquired two adjacent tracts totaling more than 80 acres as the basis for a corporate center and began work on plans for a parallel access road that would open up some of the back land in the area that has gone undeveloped for lack of access. Construction of the parallel access road could begin later this year.

In November, the city struck a deal with Eastern Maine Healthcare for a 72-acre health care park in its corporate center. Last month, Wal-Mart announced that the company is gearing up to build a 155,083-square-foot Supercenter on outer Wilson Street. Also in the works are an office complex, hotel and restaurant proposed by local developers Eremita and Valley.

Despite cost concerns raised by resident Ertin Cameron, councilors authorized City Manager Stephen Bost to proceed with a plan to exercise the city’s option on land on Green Point Road owned by Randolph Spain Jr. The city is eyeing an almost 4-acre site there as the future home of the public works department. The purchase price, if the city ultimately decides to buy the parcel and the building on the land, would be $212,000.

According to Bost, soil, water and related testing so far indicate that the site would be suitable for the city department. Cameron, however, urged the city to consider moving public works to some of the land it already owns behind the landfill near the Orrington town line.

Bost said that the cost of bringing water, sewer and other utilities to the landfill area would be prohibitive. Former City Manager Harold Parks agreed and added that the land the city has selected is more centrally located and would cut down on excessive travel costs in the long run.

School and municipal officials involved in budget development said they had found ways to meet the budgetary targets given them by city councilors. Though some of the budget cuts were discussed Tuesday, the municipal and school spending plans for next year will be examined in greater detail during a special meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 28. Also set for June 28 is a joint city council and planning board meeting on the new comprehensive land use code, which has been reviewed and approved by the State Planning Office.

The new rules would replace the current zoning ordinance, subdivision ordinance, road and street ordinance and the flood hazard section of the building code. The new code will be addressed in greater depth during a joint public hearing of the planning board and council set for Thursday, June 28.

Also during the meeting, the councilors confirmed the city’s new tax collector.

Anna Thompson, the city’s deputy tax collector since 1991, has been named tax collector. According to City Manager Stephen Bost, the tax collector post pays about $34,000 a year. She succeeds Lawrence S. Grant, who is retiring June 30 after 13 years of service to the city. Samuel Graves, most recently employed as finance director for nearby Hermon, has been hired as Thompson’s replacement.