Impact Fees Would More than Double in the County’s Proposal

Henry County held the first of two public hearings this week to consider raising its development impact fees. The county’s proposal would more than double the current impact fees.

Update: Henry County adopted an impact fee of $7,085.90 at its July 23 meeting. It is effective immediately.

Please note the county’s impact fees are paid by developers in unincorporated Henry County only. Each city has a separate impact fee structure.

Double the Impact Fees

Right now, a developer building a new home in unincorporated Henry County must pay $3,544.46. This impact fee is per housing unit, whether it’s a single-family detached house, townhome or apartment unit. The fee is broken-down into several categories, such as parks & recreation, public safety and transportation. This impact fee took effect in February 2023. Before then, the county’s impact fee remained the same from 2003 to 2023.

On Tuesday, July 9, the county held its first public hearing to consider changing its impact fees. The proposal by county staff would more than double the impact fees. The new fee would be $8,088 per housing unit, according to staff’s presentation. The new fee would take effect immediately upon the board’s adoption.

The county’s last impact fee study, completed in 2021, found Henry County could charge a maximum impact fee of $10,442.08 per housing unit. The report is available to view in its entirety online (PDF link – 117 pages). The maximum fee is based on charging developers the cost to expand county facilities and maintain the current level of service. An example how this works is below:

The maximum allowed impact fee is based on maintaining the current level of service. For example, if a town with 1,000 residents has one baseball field, and the town expects to grow to 2,000 residents, then it will need one new baseball field to maintain its level of service. The maximum impact fee would be the cost of the new baseball field distributed among the 1,000 new residents. The impact fee cannot be more than this cost. The impact fee methodology report computes this calculation across every service category for which impact fees are charged.

An increase to the eight-thousand dollar impact fee would bring the county closer to its maximum amount. Commercial and industrial development also pay impact fees. Their fee amount varies based on the project type and building square footage.

Impact on Home Price

Opponents of impact fees often say the builder will only pass the higher impact fees onto the homeowner thus raising the cost of a home. While this may be true, the $8,088 impact fee breaks down to about $22 per month on a 30-year mortgage. This amount would be about $17 monthly on a 40-year mortgage. In exchange, the fees paid by the homeowner contribute towards the cost of road projects, park improvements and public safety facilities. These services all benefit the resident in their community. The use of impact fees also reduce the county’s necessity to identify another funding source, such as property taxes, for capital projects.

Impact fees must be spent on capital projects. They may not be spent to maintain nor repair existing facilities. Finally, they must be spent for the purpose they are collected. For example, road impact fees must be spent on road projects. They cannot be transferred to another use, such as parks or public safety.

Next Public Hearing

The Henry County Board of Commissioners will hold the second impact fee public hearing on Tuesday, July 23, at 6:30 pm. The board meets at the county admin building in McDonough. There were no speakers during the first hearing on July 9.

Afterwards, the board may consider adopting a change to its impact fees. Also on that night, the board will conduct a public hearing to consider setting its 2024 millage rate. The commissioners have a called meeting on July 30 to approve the millage rate.

Featured image shows the eight-thousand dollar option for Henry County impact fees. Henry County photo.