Aug 27 2008
Beaufort Will Begin Collecting School Impact Fees
Beaufortonians soon may do several things they haven’t done in awhile: dock their boat at Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park, buy a hot dog in Waterfront Park, eat a meal at a sidewalk cafe and pay a school impact fee.
The Beaufort City Council passed a resolution Tuesday to join Beaufort County and Port Royal in assessing fees on new developments, with the money dedicated to local school construction.
Developers will now be charged $6,000 per home and $2.50 per square foot of commercial space. They will receive a 75 percent credit toward the fee for affordable housing.
These school impact fees are deceptively named because they are required in every instance of new development whether an actual school impact is involved or not. For example, a builder of a retirement community in Fort Mill appealed to the circuit court earlier this year a decision made by the York County Council to deny them a requested waiver of the fees. They claimed they should not be subject to the school impact fee because there will be no resident children. I agree with them. If they truly are a school impact fee as states, how is a retirement community of the elderly going to put additional strain on school services?
