Impact Fees

[HCPSupporter]

Well it seems that Georgetown County Council has got it right by imposing impact fees on builders and sub-dividers.
While I may agree that there is never a good time to do this, a bad economy limits progress, while in a good economy, there is not a worry about what is needed in the future, it is a place to start.  And a oppurtune time to do it.
I am sure that when the building starts again, the profits will be there for the entreprenuers, and the fees, absorbed into the cost of the homes, will help the average tax paying citizen, who may not have to pay out to place the infrastructure that the developers did not complete.
Governments are going broke, and services are being cut.  We can no longer pay for the upgrades in neighborhoods where the developers had reaped the profit at the expense of the consumer, and moved on.
We are left to pay for the schools, roads and the fattening of government to handle the added population brought to the area.  Continued taxing is not the answer, impact fees are.  
If Horry County had imposed an impact fee a few years back, our traffic and road, and public safety problems may have been on the way to a result that would benefit all parties.

Impact fees in other States and areas, have not proven to be the detriment that realtors and builders have said they would be.  

[JHarbin]

Horry County PRIDE could not agree more. Now there's a new option for counties called the Residential Improvement District (RID). It's not perfect but it has certain advantages over impact fees.

1. It's paid by the new owners in the new development over a period of 20-30 years instead of a one time impact fee. This makes it easier for the County to budget strategically.

2. It also covers schools which impact fees in SC are not allowed to.