In October, the Lake County Capital Facilities Advisory
Committee recommended that school impact fees be increased by 100 percent (from
$2,573 to $5,146) for a single-family home. Lake
County is located next to Orlando and
Disney World in Florida .
School Board Member Rosanne Brandeburg, who also serves on
the committee, asked for a 300-percent increase in school impact fees (from
$2,573 to $10,292). The Lake County Board of County Commissioners
ignored the committee’s recommendation and instead voted to increase school
impact fees by 200 percent (from $2,573 to $7,719).
Most new homes in Lake
County are in the
$125-300K range. Retirement pricing
If the 200 percent increase in school impact fees is
ultimately adopted, total impact fees for a 2,500-square-foot new home would be
$9,112 in north Lake County and $11,716 in south Lake County .
This amount includes fees for schools, roads, fire, parks and libraries, but
does not include the cost of permitting, which could add another $3,500 to the
cost.
With construction and
permitting costs, residents in south Lake
County will be facing
over $15,000 in government fees before the first shovel of dirt is turned to
construct a new home.
According to the Orlando Regional REALTOR Association, the
median home selling price in Lake
County for August was
$149,900. Impact fees in the amount of $11,716 would represent more than 8
percent of the total home price. The housing market in Lake County
is smothered with a glut of foreclosed homes, and new home appraisals cannot
support this whopping increase in school impact fees.
With stubbornly high unemployment, Lake County
cannot afford to lose any more jobs. In line with this, an average of 164
individual jobs are created during the construction of just one new home.
Raising impact fees by 200 percent will probably cost thousands of construction
jobs.
The majority of jurisdictions across America do not have impact fees.
These communities rely, instead, on growth and development to fund government.
Many will say that school impact fees are necessary to build schools.
On the contrary, it does not work, because increasing impact
fees kills housing demand by raising new home prices beyond what the market and
appraisals will bear. Schools must be constructed from broad-based taxes, as
they are in most communities across America .
2 comments:
You think that's bad, check out Sonoma County fees here in California!
http://www.sonoma-county.org/prmd/fees/css-002.pdf
Unfortunately the population growth in Lake County (service workers and 55+)will not be able to afford these adjusted costs for homes but it will slow growth - HMMMMM maybe thats what they want.
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