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Impact Fees can be a powerful tool to both control the pace of residential development and ensure that adequate capital funding is generated when development proceeds anyway. The idea is simple: put the burden of funding incremental buildings on the folks who move into the community and create the need. When our family moved to the Hilliard School District in 1979, there were seven school buildings in the district with capacity for 4,400 students. Since then, seventeen more school buildings have been built, with a total capacity of 15,100 students (see the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report*). I have voted for every levy that built those incremental schools, and in doing so have accepted at least our fair share of the of housing costs over the past 27 years. Now the district officials say we need another high school and another elementary school. And there's no end in sight once the developers get their hands on Brown Township, thanks to the School Board's choice for the location of the new high school. I recognize that our kids got to attend classes in school buildings that were substantially paid for before we moved into the community (they had classes in Beacon, Brown, and what is today Memorial Middle School). So why isn't if fair for us to participate in the cost of new schools that get built to house kids that come after ours? It's a matter of degree. Take a look at this chart showing the student capacity of our buildings since 1979: For our neighbors who have lived in Hilliard for many years, it doesn't seem fair to ask them to pay for all this growth. If you are new to the community, don't you think your taxes are high enough already without paying for more and more schools? Impact fees can make things fair if done right. At some point in time, you say that existing schools are going to be paid for by existing residents, and new schools get paid for by new residents. Existing residents pay property taxes; new residents pay impact fees but not for bond levies. Too bad we're going to build one more high school before we get impact fees implemented. Let's not do another (which is where we're headed)! Attached is a letter I sent to October 2004 to State Representative Larry Wolpert and State Senator Steve Stivers. Rep. Wolpert responded to me with a phone call, and I was also contacted by an aid to Sen. Stivers (who was serving with the Ohio National Guard in Iraq at the time). On December 27, 2004, Rep. Wolpert, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Growth and Land Use published a report in which it was recommended that Public School Districts be given the legal ability to impose Impact Fees (p.11). Also attached is a note I sent to the Matt Feasel in preparation for a Treasurer's Committee Meeting in December of 2004. There are numerous links to articles about impact fees. Many high-growth communities across America have implemented impact fees as a way to put the financial burden of expansion on those who cause it. At one of the District's Community Conversations on November 10, 2005, I made comments from floor suggesting that our community get behind impact fees as a funding tool. One woman remarked that when she lived in Colorado, the community there charged substantial impact fees -- in excess of $20,000 for each new home as I recall. At this time, Ohio Law does not allow school districts to levy Impact Fees. We need to change that. Representative Wolpert has introduced House Bill 299 into the Ohio Legislature which authorizes school districts to impose impact fees. Now we need the Senate to pass this bill, and the Governor to sign it. Please let our State Senator, Steve Stivers know that you support this bill. Update June 14, 2006: I spoke with an aid to Rep Wolpert this week and was told that HB299 is essentially dead. The developers win again.... See also: |
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