How They Are Used
Impact fees have become the most important method in infrastructure financing and an essential part of local governments to fund infrastructure or public services. Impact fees may help to assist in the development of needed parks, schools, roads, sewer, water treatment, utilities, libraries, and public safety buildings to the newly developed area. In most cases impact fees are used in new development. An example of this would be when a new neighborhood or commercial development is constructed the developer may be forced to pay the fee for new infrastructure or a new fire station in the area due to the demand the new development causes. In some cases the developer may pass on the fee to the future property owners through housing costs or charges. It can be seen as a growth management tool that collects development funding payment as a way to exercise police power. Impact Fees are seen as a regulation tool, but at the same time their revenue raising purpose can be seen as a tax to some. Still most states recognize and allow the use of impact fees as a way to regulate land use.
The cost of an impact fee can vary from state to state. Generally, area in the Western United States charge higher fees than other places in the country. They can also vary depending on the type of need by a community with school facilities causing the greatest cost of an impact fee.
Depending on the region or stated impact fees can be classified under different types of names. Early on they were known as Capital Recovery or Expansion fees. In some states such as Oregon they are known as system development charges while in North Carolina they are known as facility fees. No matter the title of the fee within a state they all function on the same premise.
Today, impact fees have become a popularly used method. About 60% of all cities with over 25,000 residents along with 40% of metropolitan counties use impact fees on new developments for public services or infrastructure. In some cities or states such as Florida, 90% of communities use Impact Fees. Twenty six states have implemented the use of impact fees in the western portion of the country, along the Atlantic coast, and within the Great Lakes region.
Read more about this topic: Impact Fee
Famous quotes containing the words how, they and/or are:
“It may be tempting to focus on the fact that, even among those who support equality, men’s involvement as fathers remains a far distance from what most women want and most children need. Yet it is also important to acknowledge how far and how fast many men have moved towards a pattern that not long ago virtually all men considered anathema.”
—Katherine Gerson (20th century)
“It is dangerous to tell the people that the laws are unjust; for they obey them only because they think them just. Therefore it is necessary to tell them at the same time that they must obey them because they are laws, just as they must obey superiors, not because they are just, but because they are superiors. In this way all sedition is prevented.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)
“The things men come to eat when they are alone are, I suppose, not much stranger than the men themselves.... A writer years ago told me of living for five months on hen mash.”
—M.F.K. Fisher (1908–1992)