EL PASO, Texas -- The Public Service Board on Wednesday approved a plan to create impact fees for any and all new properties, costing thousands of dollars for each new home and business.

The PSB said right now everyone who pays a monthly water bill helps with the growth of the water system in new parts of town. With an impact fee, paying for the growth will shift from existing customers to the new subdivisions, and the people who live in them.

Since 1994, El Paso Water Utilities has wanted to have impact fees, and now it looks for a thumbs up from city council.

"We calculate a fee of about $3,000 for a typical residential unit," said Ed Archuleta, CEO of El Paso Water Utilities.

It could be even more for larger businesses. Archuleta said for 14 years, current residents have paid $200 million for growth projects.

"The existing customer that sits on the corner of Alabama and such and such a street, why should they have to pay for that growth of the city?" said Archuleta.

Ray Adauto with the El Paso Association of Builders said this couldn't come at a worse time.

"There's nothing more ludicrous then to be adding addition fees when we have a difficult situation already, compounded by the credit crisis that we are going through right now," Adauto told KFOX.

He adds that El Pasoans can barely afford homes without the fee.

"The average income here is $37,200, how do you justify adding more cost, especially to individuals who are trying to buy their first time home?" said Adauto.

Archuleta counters that nearly ever city in the Southwest has impact fees.

"In other communities that have had these, it doesn't stop growth, it doesn't do anything, it's just another way so that the existing customer doesn't have to pay for that growth," he said.

Adauto said he has found a Texas state statute that specifically states what impact fees can be used for, and that the PSB isn't following that statute.

"We think it's illegal the way they are approaching it, we will be fighting these fees as far as we can go," said Adauto.

The PSB said this fee would not go into effect until at the earliest Mar. 1, 2010 if it becomes a reality.