Anyone who thought instituting impact fees would be as simple as sending bills to future homeowners will be disappointed by information presented last week about the lengthy, complicated process.  At a public hearing prior to the June planning commission meeting, Larry Vanden Bosch of the North Georgia Regional Development Center (RDC) presented a detailed overview of the numerous plans, reports and public hearings required before impact fees can be implemented and then only implemented if the county is satisfied with the outcome of all the meetings.  The June 14 meeting itself served as the very first step of the process: an offficial announcement that the county is preparing a Capital Improvement Element (CIE) — a state required pre-requistite to impact fees. The  CIE will document current levels of service and project future needs in county operations.  Officials from the county and Vanden Bosch, the Director of Community & Economic Development Services for the RDC, emphasized the impact fee plan is something being considered — nothing more at present.  Planning Director Norman Pope introduced the subject saying, “Mr. Newton (sole commissioner Bill Newton) wants to gather this information to consider what we might do to at least consider impact fees.”  The principal difficulty in implementing impact fees, according to Vanden Bosch is a state requirement that the money recieved can only be spent to “maintain” a level of service in the face of growth.  Before they can start collecting, a county must first define a level of service, then acknowledge that the level is acceptable and then define how much to charge new homeowners to keep the same level. The state law strictly forbids using the fees to add new services or even improve the level of service.  For example, a library, according to Vanden Bosch, is easy to determine the level of service. A county has a certain amount of square feet in library space for each home in the county and a certain number of books available for each home.  Then if the level is acceptable to the community, you calculate what you need to charge new home owners to expand the facilities to keep this same ratio of books and space to homes.  Roads, as both Pope and Vanden Bosch said, would be a very difficult place for Pickens County to apply impact fees.  Vanden Bosch said the current transportation study underway may give some data to  define a level of service, but it would be a complicated process. Secondly, as Pope emphasized, with the miles of dirt roads and congested roadways, most people probably aren’t satisfied with the current level of services.  “We have to apply the costs to all citizens to get to the level you want, then impact fees can be used to maintain it,” Pope said. “We would need to find a way to finance getting to that level.”  According to early word from the county, fire protection, the library and parks and recreation are the first areas where they want to study the use of impact fees. These are not necessarily the areas of greatest need, but places where impact fees might be feasible.  “There are areas with distinct needs that are readily apparent, but there are other factors that have to be considered before impact fees can begin being used,” Pope said.  Although many people have publicly called for impact fees to alleviate the costs of new schools,

that is one area the state doesn’t allow impact fees to be spent under any circumstances.  Another complicating factor with both the parks and fire protection plans is the cities of Nelson, Talking Rock and Jasper all offer some parks and Jasper has a fire department, which means that different plans or cooperation with the cities will be needed.  “Having the cities as partners makes it a little more complicated,” Vanden Bosch said.  He said if the county plans to apply impact fees to areas where the cities also offer the servies, they would need to “quickly get them (the cities) engaged to work out any differences.”  Vanden Bosch said the RDC, which will be doing much of the planning work, expects to have the next requirement, the Capital Improvement Element, prepared by mid-July.  This document will project the additional services or facilities the county will require in the next 20 years. It must be updated yearly, if impact fees are being used, but must begin with a list of specific projects and timetable for completion during the first five years.  Determining needs in an area as quickly growing as Pickens County will be a challenge. According to Vanden Bosch’s projections by the year 2025, the county will have 64,784 people, an increase of more than 41,000.  However, it is exactly this quick growth which makes impact fees so attractive, he said.  “It is an excellent way to pay for demand created by new growth,” he said. “Because people moving in are paying for the needs they created, the existing residents don’t have to worry about it.”  He said the impact fees particularly make sense in areas like Pickens with fast residential growth, but limited commercial development.  He said areas like Henry County, Cherokee County and Hall County have either implemented them successfully or are considering them, otherwise the property taxes would get higher and higher in those counties.  “It is rather complicated, but more and more counties in Georgia are considering it. Twenty-seven counties have either imposed them or are considering them,” he said.  Responding to questions from the Planning Commission, Vanden Bosch said a county can change the areas where they apply the impact fees on a yearly basis, which is why they are required to review the plan every year.  Plannning Commission member Larry Toney said, “This is unlike a SPLOST (sales tax) where you must strictly identify where the money will be spent.”  Pope said being able to change the areas where it is applied means the county could eventually fund roads, water supply, or other areas, which may not be applicable now due to the lack of acceptable service.  Vanden Bosch said following the release of the draft CIE which identifies the levels of services, there would need to be “ a lot of discussion and imput from citizens.”  Then if the capital improvement plan is adopted, the county can proceed with working on the impact fee ordinance, which will involve how much the fees might be to maintain the service. No one at the meeting would speculate on any figures.  Prior to adoption, the county is required establish a Impact Fee Advisory Committee and hold two public hearings.  Vanden Bosch said all the work could be completed by December of this year.