Impact Fees

The future of traffic impact fees in Washington Township, Pa., remains undecided, as the township supervisors announced Monday they will delay further discussion until April 13. The supervisors are considering lowering the existing fees or establishing new ones. Traffic impact fees are assessed on new development in a defined geographic zone to fund development of Washington Township Boulevard. That relief route, last estimated at $16.7 million, would provide an east-west alternative to Pa. 16. The first section from Pa. 16 in Rouzerville, Pa., to Old Forge Road is open, and a $3 million bridge was built near Country Club Road.

charlestown@herald-mail.com CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. - Jefferson County Schools officials are close to finalizing a cost-per-student figure that will be used to help develop a school impact fee for Jefferson County. Impact fees are charged to housing developers to help pay for expanded public services needed because of growth, such as new schools, expanded water and sewer service and other needs. There has been a push among some groups and individuals in the county to start impact fees because of expected population increases in the county in coming years.

A committee tasked with reviewing the traffic impact fees on select new development in Washington Township, Pa., has recommended those fees be lowered. The committee, largely composed of real estate professionals, has recommended the impact fee be reduced to an amount between $2,486 and $2,714, saying the Washington Township Supervisors can use their discretion when setting the amount. The impact fees are assessed on each “traffic unit” created by new development within specific geographic zones.

By STEVEN T. DENNIS Staff Writer Seven years after the Washington County Commissioners last seriously considered the controversial measure of impact fees, a projected $27 million gap in capital budget funding over the next five years has rekindled the issue. A $100,000 study of the costs of development is in the works, though not yet approved by the commissioners, said County Planning Director Robert Arch. The study would include ways to pay for development costs, including impact fees or special taxing districts, Arch said.

Facing millions in new expenses for the school system, the Washington County Commissioners are taking another look at impact fees. Nine years after receiving the state legislature's approval to enact the fees, the county board may be ready to put them into place. Before that, we recommend they look back at a report done on the issue by a citizen study committee back in 1989. A year after that report, the Maryland General Assembly gave the commissioners the power to set fees, provided that they first create a department of public works and enact an adequate public facilities plan.

It's a measure of how short of cash the Washington County government is - and expects to be for a long time - that the idea of development impact fees is getting another hearing. That idea was political poison in 1990, when the Washington County Homebuilders placed ads emphasizing that they and "their 4,400 employees" didn't like the idea. That was the year young Greg Snook made his first try for commissioner and was pleasantly surprised to find himself the top vote-getter, which some regarded as a warning to the incumbents that impact fees were better forgotten.

gregs@herald-mail.com HAGERSTOWN - The Hagerstown City Council on Tuesday took steps toward setting fees that developers would pay to offset the impact of new buildings on city services and facilities. At Tuesday's mayor and council meeting, the council gave preliminary approval for a Bethesda, Md., contractor to begin calculating the amounts at which impact fees could be set to raise money from new development to pay for such things as more police protection and road improvements.

Impact fees focus of meeting By DAVE McMILLION / Staff Writer, Charles Town CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. - A cross-section of officials including school board members, county commissioners, state lawmakers and representatives from the governor's office and Congress met Tuesday night to assess the Eastern Panhandle's growth needs. Much of the discussion at the Jefferson County Board of Education office was focused on how to help counties implement impact fees, which are fees collected from developers to help pay for services like new schools, fire and police protection and other services.

A committee tasked with reviewing the traffic impact fees on select new development in Washington Township, Pa., has recommended those fees be lowered. The committee, largely composed of real estate professionals, has recommended the impact fee be reduced to an amount between $2,486 and $2,714, saying the Washington Township Supervisors can use their discretion when setting the amount. The impact fees are assessed on each “traffic unit” created by new development within specific geographic zones.

The Washington Township (Pa.) Planning Commission on Monday recommended approval of land-development plans for a property being eyed for Auto Zone. Motorists accessing the 7,380-square-foot building would use Geiser Avenue off East Main Street. Ronnie Martin from Long-Mar LLC, the developer, said even with municipal approval of the plans, the retailer might not commit. He said the problem is the township impact fees on certain new development. “With the impact fees, this may not go,” Martin said.

Following a recommendation from the outgoing county administrator, the Jefferson County Commission Thursday voted to eliminate the county's impact fee department and abolish the director's position. Tim Boyde, who resigned as county administrator in January, suggested in a confidential exit memorandum that since the housing downturn, impact fees are only “trickling in and the justification for a full-time impact fee coordinator does not exist.” The commissioners, on a motion by Commissioner Dale Manuel, voted 3-2 to dismantle the capital planning and impact fee department and terminate the job of F. Mark Schiavone, its longtime coordinator.

Mark Dyck, president of the Jefferson County Development Authority, pleaded Thursday with the Jefferson County Commission to eliminate impact fees on commercial structures, saying the fees deter new business investment. Dyck wants the fees stopped for two to four years to "give the county a competitive edge in recruiting new business. " Impact fees on nonresidential construction property have netted only about $300,000 in the last six years compared to the $16 million from fees for residential construction, Mark Schiavone, the county's impact fee coordinator, said after the meeting.

The Hagerstown City Council Tuesday night was reluctant to waive a 2004 road impact fee without revisiting the intent of its creation. Representatives of three properties off Eastern Boulevard asked the council to waive its Eastern Boulevard road assessment fee, questioning the fee's fairness. The city adopted an ordinance in April 2004 that established the Eastern Boulevard Improvement Fee District for a section of the city just north of Dual Highway on both sides of Eastern Boulevard.

The future of traffic impact fees in Washington Township, Pa., remains undecided, as the township supervisors announced Monday they will delay further discussion until April 13. The supervisors are considering lowering the existing fees or establishing new ones. Traffic impact fees are assessed on new development in a defined geographic zone to fund development of Washington Township Boulevard. That relief route, last estimated at $16.7 million, would provide an east-west alternative to Pa. 16. The first section from Pa. 16 in Rouzerville, Pa., to Old Forge Road is open, and a $3 million bridge was built near Country Club Road.

The Washington Township (Pa.) Supervisors are thinking about replacing their traffic impact fees to accommodate a scaled-back plan for a relief route designed north of Waynesboro. On Wednesday, the supervisors discussed throwing out their current ordinance, using a $1,000 fee set by Pennsylvania statute, and working with a consultant to establish a replacement fee. They decided to discuss it further at their Monday meeting, which starts at 7 p.m. in the township offices off Welty Road.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -- The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals on Thursday granted a stay requested by Berkeley County public water and sewer districts in their legal battle with developer Larry V. Faircloth. The utilities requested the stay pending their high court appeal of a judge's declaratory judgment that deemed the utilities' collection of capacity improvement fees to be illegal. A stay typically suspends a judicial proceeding from continuing. Since ruling against the utilities in an order signed Jan. 29, former state Supreme Court justice Elliott E. "Spike" Maynard removed himself from the case and filed candidacy papers to run for Congress in the 1st District in southern West Virginia.

Editor's note: The Herald-Mail invites readers to answer poll questions on www.herald-mail.com. Readers also may submit comments when voting. A sampling of edited reader comments will run on The Herald-Mail's Opinion page on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. The question posted Oct. 15 was: Do you agree with Washington County's short-term "stimulus" plan -- which combines an excise tax credit, a permit fee reduction and a recordation tax break-- to encourage residential construction and make homes more affordable?

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. -- Jefferson County is building two new elementary schools and adding to a third. Thanks to impact fees on new houses, the schools won't cost local taxpayers one dime. School leaders asked the Jefferson County Commission Thursday to approve a deal in which the developer of the proposed Breckenridge subdivision on Job Corps Road will do $681,000 worth of site work for a new elementary school to be built there in lieu of paying impact fees on 60 homes. The agreement, which received the commission's blessing, means the state School Building Authority, which pays for new school construction, will agree to the Jefferson County School Board's request for $6 million toward the $9 million needed to build the new 500-student school.