Franklin County townships consider starting, increasing fees

February 04, 2008|By JENNIFER FITCH

WAYNESBORO, Pa. -- As one southern Franklin County township weighs whether to enact transportation impact fees, another is considering raising its from $2,714 to $3,147.

Washington Township currently uses a formula to essentially charge developers $2,714 for each extra vehicle their project generates in a designated geographical zone. The impact fee revenue has been used toward the creation of Washington Township Boulevard, a relief route being built north of Waynesboro.

The proposal to hike that fee $433 per "vehicle trip" will go before the township supervisors for consideration tonight, according to a memo presented last week.

Supervisors in Antrim Township, which surrounds the Borough of Greencastle, are considering adopting their own fees. Those would affect the second phase of the Grindstone Hill Road extension between Leitersburg Road and U.S. 11 at Interstate 81's exit 3.

The supervisors have posted a fact sheet at www.twp.antrim.pa.us for public review.

Funds generated from impact fees can be used to pay for road construction, rights of way, engineering, legal costs, planning and engineering, debt service and analyses of roadway sufficiency, according to the fact sheet.

In Pennsylvania, each impact fee zone may be up to seven square miles, although a township can form several of those zones. Greene Township outside Chambersburg has done that, the fact sheet states.

Antrim's fact sheet, which was prepared by its township manager, states that an interim fee of $1,000 could be collected while an advisory committee and traffic consultant hammer out the final details.

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