By DAVE HAMRICK
Staff Writer

Impact fees could have an impact on Fayette County's capital improvement projects of more than $20 million over the next 20 years, a blue ribbon committee reported last week.

The fees are charged to developers to help defray the cost of additional county facilities and services made necessary by their developments.

Members of the impact fee committee appointed by the County Commission to study the idea of charging such fees have recommended the county charge fees of $1,165 per home (plan A), or $1,183 per home (plan B). Plan A depends upon collecting the fees throughout the county, while plan B contemplates collecting impact fees only in the areas outside Fayette's cities.

Plan A is the one most preferred by the committee, but in order to collect impact fees inside the cities, the county would have to get an agreement from the city councils involved. Failing that, the impact fee committee is recommending the higher figure.

That figure would raise only half as much money for county projects in the first five years — $1.11 million as opposed to $2.18 million, according to the committee report. But experts predict that as time goes on, more and more of the county's growth will be taking place in the unincorporated area, so that at the end of 20 years, plan A would have raised only about $3 million more than plan B — $23.75 million compared with $20.65 million.

The committee is recommending that the money be earmarked for public safety and recreation projects, because capital improvement plans for both of those areas are in place, with facility improvements planned in the near future.

A proposed new county jail could absorb some of the impact fee money, along with four new fire stations that are in the planning stages, committee Chairman Dr. Bob Todd told the County Commission last week.

Having projects lined up to receive the funding is an important consideration, Todd said, because state law requires that impact fees be used within five years, or they have to be returned with interest.

Law also limits impact fees to the portion of future construction projects that can be directly attributed to the growth in population.

They can't be used to cover the cost of projects already needed due to current population.

Therefore, said Todd, almost half of the 384 new beds that will be added to the county jail will be out of bounds, because the jail already needs about 170 more beds than it has.

In addition to public safety and recreation, impact fees can lawfully be used for water treatment and supply, wastewater treatment, roads, streets and bridges, storm water systems and libraries. Todd said the committee considered all of those areas and rejected them because no major projects are planned in the near future.

The county can always add impact fees for those services when the needs become apparent, he said.

The Board of Commissioners will study the committee's report and begin its own discussion of the pros and cons of impact fees at future meetings.