Mismanaging Impact

Those hoping to see new development pay its way and the County use its funds appropriately suffered a setback on Tuesday when a circuit court judge denied the county's request to put an end to the $25 million class action lawsuit by citizens and a developer. Yesterday's Capital reports that county officials may have broken the law by spending more than $6.4 million in impact fees collected from new homebuyers on inappropriate expenditures. County Code requires that funds be spent in the district in which they are collected, on projects that add capacity to infrastructure (e.g., more classrooms, additional sewer and water), within 6 years of being collected. Some of the fees were apparently spent to add space to several schools without adding any additional seats, and in another case, county planners failed to follow the proper procedures to get a three-year extension to use the fees. Fees for a current single-family home stand at $4,069, and the County has a balance of $38 million in impact fees banked. These fees are critical for upgrading infrastructure for the influx of new residents and offsetting some of the costs of new growth, it's imperative that the County doesn't squander them or jeopardize their legitimacy by managing them incompetently.