Orange County NC Website
1 <br />question is yes, since the resident's move to a new home will <br />probably free an existing home for a new resident moving in. While <br />the existing resident and not the new one would pay the impact fee, , <br />there is no simple way of dealing with such situations effectively. <br />For example, the existing "resident" could be a young married <br />couple with no children. The couple builds a new home and sells <br />their existing residence to a retired couple from another state. , <br />The couple who built the new home then decides to have children, <br />and, in the long run, creates an additional demand for more <br />schools. If the retired couple had to pay the impact fee as a "new , <br />resident ", the cost of needed facilities would be passed to them <br />and not the young married couple. <br />The number of examples which could be provided to support or ' <br />oppose payment of impact fees by existing residents is endless. <br />Perhaps the important point to remember, though, is that over the <br />long term, an individual home will be bought and sold many times. , <br />Whether a new home is built by a couple with children from another <br />state or by an existing family with no children, both the direct <br />and indirect result is to set up a situation where a demand for ' <br />additional school facilities is created. The demand may not be <br />immediate, but it exists because of the opportunity for a home to <br />be occupied by a family with school -age children. In this sense , <br />then, the existing resident must share the responsibility for <br />creating additional demand as well as payment of the impact fee. <br />OFFSETS TO IMPACT FEES I <br />One concern which has been expressed by developers and <br />municipal representatives is that exactions in the form of water, ' <br />sewer, street, and recreation facilities are already in place in <br />local development approval processes. If developers must pay impact <br />fees, the ability of local governments to "exact" other ' <br />improvements may be affected. However, when developers dedicate or <br />build needed facilities, it is a form of payment of impact fees. <br />Thus, it follows that the amount of impact fees otherwise due would <br />be reduced by the value of that construction or dedication. Most <br />impact fee ordinances provide that construction or dedication is a <br />means for payment of impact fees and provide for corresponding <br />reductions.,guch a provision insures that a developer is not <br />required to pay more than a proportionate share of capital costs. <br />It makes no difference whether the cost is borne in kind <br />(construction or dedication) or in cash. <br />Title VI, Chapter 460, of the 1987 Session Laws allows <br />provision to be made for credits against required impact fees when <br />a developer installs improvements of a type that generally would be <br />paid for by impact fees. The enabling legislation also gives the <br />County the right to spell out the circumstances under which a <br />developer would be allowed to install such improvements and receive <br />credits. <br />One obvious example of an offset would be the situation where <br />a developer proposes a large residential development and dedicates <br />land for a school site. Instead of utilizing all of the land for <br />Page - 22 1 <br />