On Thursday, September 24th, The Forsyth County Impact Fee Advisory Committee met to review the latest draft of the Impact Fee Study prepared by consultant Duncan and Associates and draft final recommendations for the Board of Commissioners. The Council for Quality Growth was in attendance at the meeting and is closely monitoring the progress of the new fees.
The most impactful component of the proposed update is the creation of a new Roads Impact Fee to be assessed on all land uses in the County. The proposed Roads/Transportation Fee is much higher than any other municipality in the region at $7,288 for residential units and $9,392 per 1,000 sq. ft. of commercial. The Committee voted 5 to 3 to phase in the transportation fee over 3 years, where once adopted the first year the Roads Fee will be 50% of the maximum ($3,644 per residential unit), 75% of the maximum the second year ($5,466 per residential unit), and 100% of the roads fee will be charged in the third year ($7,288 for roads, totaling $8,961 per residential unit). This recommendation will be presented to the Board of Commissioners next month. The first work session is scheduled for October 21st at 2:00 in the afternoon.
The Council for Quality Growth will attend the Board of Commissioners work session to encourage the creation of an equitable, balanced impact fee ordinance. The Council hopes to ensure that landowners already vested in Forsyth County with planned and platted projects will not be subject to the proposed fee increases and that the proposed Roads Fee will remain capped at 50% of the maximum for an extended period of time. Click HERE to see a table prepared by Policy Analyst, Chelsea Hagood, comparing the proposed fees in Forsyth County to other existing and proposed Impact Fees in neighboring communities. For any questions or concerns please contact Chelsea at 770-813-3374 or ch@councilforqualitygrowth.org.
The table below shows the proposed Fee changes in Forsyth County:
The Council for Quality Growth will continue to attend the Impact Fee Advisory Committee meetings to encourage the creation of an equitable, balanced impact fee ordinance.