The development community made its opinion about impact fees known to Jones County’s Board of Commissioners during last week’s public hearing.

The majority of the speakers at the March 18 meeting were against impact fees, citing today’s economy, but no guarantees were given that the opinion of builders and realtors about the fees will change when the housing market bounces back.

The second and final public opinion hearing about the impact fees is scheduled for April 15 at the Charlotte Wilson Conference Room at the Government Center.

Impact fees, formally known in Georgia as ‘development impact fees’, are one-time fees charged to new developments and are meant to cover part of the cost of providing the public facilities that support these developments. Such facilities include infrastructure – including water, sewer and roads – and services, such as police, emergency management systems, libraries and parks. If properly applied, impact fees can encourage infill development while discouraging scattered leap-frog development.

Study results

Bill Ross III of Ross and Associates was hired to perform a study of the feasibility of impact fees for Jones County in February of 2007. The county identified four areas – libraries, emergency management, the sheriff’s department, and parks and recreation – to use impact fees, and these fees can pay for 70 percent of new growth.

Ross presented the results of the study to commissioners Dec. 19 complete with a chart showing the maximum impact fees that could be charged to fund future projects related to growth through 2030.

The study showed an estimated $14.8 million in local costs will be needed to fund capital improvements over the next 23 years, including $600,000 for libraries, $7.9 million for emergency management, $2.1 million for the sheriff’s department, and $4.2 million for parks and recreation.

The total maximum allowed fee per residential dwelling would be $2,338, according to the study. Commercial and industrial property impact fees are based on different criteria, and those impact fees vary according to the type of business. Ross explained that the county does not have to use the maximum impact fee or adopt impact fees at all.

Ross said the county cannot adopt impact fees until the Department of Community Affairs returns the Capital Improvements Element report that was submitted Feb. 7. The review by the DCA is expected to take 60 days.

Ross was the first to speak at last week’s hearing and began with an overview of the process.

“The bigger policy issue is that you are not required to charge the maximum fee. That is a policy decision,” he said. “You can have an across the board reduction or reduce the fee by category.”

Ross said the key to an acceptable reduction is to be evenhanded and make sure the reduction affects all development fairly. He said the county administrator or his designee will administrate the collected funds, which will be maintained in an interest bearing account.

“The funds must be spent for the category they were collected. The county has the option of when to collect the fee. It could be when the building permit is purchased or later,” Ross explained.

The law

The Georgia Development Impact Fee Act was enacted into law in 1990. According to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs website, the act sets rules for local governments that wish to charge new development for a portion of the additional capital facilities needed to serve it. The provisions of DIFA are extensive in order to assure that new development pays no more than its fair share of the costs and that impact fees are used for growth and not to solve existing service deficiencies.

Opposition

Brian Jackson of Dames Ferry Properties was the first to speak in opposition of the fees. Jackson said his company is Jones County’s largest builder.

“We employ a lot of folks to build these houses. Impact fees will make me less competitive,” he pointed out. “We’ll employ fewer people because we will have less work. Those people live here and will have less money to spend. I wish you would consider not imposing impact fees.”

Joel Beasley sells materials to builders and told the commissioners that a great deal of people are affected by the building industry.

“Anyone can pick up a newspaper and see the state of the economy. The fed cut the rates again,” he said. “A huge number of people are employed by the industry. You would do a disservice to impose fees to slow growth even more.”

The owner of John Smith Construction said, if impact fees are adopted in Jones County, he will have to move his business elsewhere.

“We won’t be competitive,” he said.

James Solomon of Middle Georgia Realty said he wanted to tell the commissioners exactly what impact fees would do to realtors.

“The fee alone can cause people not to be pre-qualified,” he said.

Keith Rollins said since Henry County has adopted impact fees, its growth has gone down 31 percent.

“Development won’t come when they have to look at impact fees,” he said.

Conn Realty was represented by John Conn. He told the commissioners that he recognizes that they are trying to deal with growth issues.

“Mr. Ross has given you information, but his information doesn’t consider the impact on employees. We want industry and businesses that will pay more sales tax,” he said. “Walgreen’s won’t build a building in a field. There must be housetops there first.”

Conn said he believes everyone wants to do what is best for Jones County.

“I don’t think the timing is right for impact fees today, and it won’t be right tomorrow,” he added. “In my opinion impact fees are not the way to fund capital improvements.”

Conn said $11 million over 23 years is not the answer.

Another view

Ted Stone is a member of the Impact Fee Advisory Committee as well as chairman of the Jones County Board of Education. Stone first pointed out that none of the impact fees would ever go to education.

“I understand the builders’ objections, but someone has to pave the roads,” he said. “Both sides have good points. If you build a house, someone has to provide the services.”

Stone said the state is in turmoil about taxes and decisions have not been in favor of public education.

“If we could spread the cost around, it might be a good thing,” he commented.

Former commissioner Susan Green said $11 million would be a tremendous help to pay for improvements that will not have to be paid by taxes or by the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.

“Any additional funding source is critical to the future well-being of the county,” she said. “Impact fees have the potential to help avoid increased taxes, and development impact fees promote smarter growth.”

Green encouraged board members to consider the positive aspects of impact fees and assure sustainable development for the county.

Tim Thornton, a real estate developer in Macon, emphasized that homebuilders do not support impact fees.

“Jones County is on the cusp of attracting a big box store or restaurant. I think you could make the argument that you could have more money in your coffers if the community is developer friendly,” he said.

Realtor Sandy Davis left no doubt that she is opposed to impact fees. She told the commissioners that it is a misconception that residents are not affected by impact fees.

Ross was allowed to speak again at the conclusion of the hearing. He said he felt the commissioners had heard valuable information.

“It costs 1.5 mills a year to pay for community projects. The question is do you want to shift part of that to new growth,” he said. “Without impact fees, taxes are on the folks that already have the services.”

Ross said the housing downturn has nothing to do with the subject of the hearing.

“We are seeing the effect of the economy, not the effect of impact fees,” he said.