Commission sets public hearing for impact fees
By Greg Pearson STAFF WRITER

A public hearing on Oct. 16 will help the Chesterfield Planning Commission determine if more than 700 property owners will be required to pay road impact fees before they can develop their land. The proposed ordinance would impact around 9,000 lots, which were rezoned to residential before 1992 when the county enacted its proffer system. If approved, the ordinance would require those property owners to pay a $5,280 per lot fee when applying for a building permit to help offset the cost of road improvements.

The General Assembly approved legislation earlier this year that allows counties to charge impact fees after study by a committee, a recommendation by the commission and final approval by the board of supervisors.

The Chesterfield County Impact Fee Advisory Committee has been meeting weekly to find consensus on its recommendations. So far, it will be recommending that impact fees should only apply to residential properties. Community Development Authorities (CDAs) and other special assessments for roads such as transportation districts would be exempt.

"If we recommend anything other than residential," said developer Buddy Sowers last week, "the board has indicated it's going nowhere." By law, 40 percent of the committee must be from the development community.

Exempting CDAs and transportation districts rules out most of Magnolia Green and homes in the Centerpointe area where a transportation district imposing a higher tax rate for new construction has already been established. Those exemptions have reduced the number of affected lots from about 15,000 to 9,000. Even so, charging impact fees on just those lots could raise $45-$54 million. The committee has yet to "calculate the impact fee and decide about credits," according to Assistant County Attorney Jeff Mincks.

The committee plans to recommend that collected impact fees could be used to make road improvements anywhere in the county - not just in the communities where those fees were paid. That allows Chesterfield's transportation department maximum flexibility in spending those funds. Currently, it costs $8.45 million for one-mile of two-lane road, which includes buying right-of-way, moving utilities, engineering and construction.

The committee is recommending that dissatisfied property owners have 60 days to notify the Board of Zoning Appeals that they wish to appeal and another 60 days before the case is heard. Mincks said the next level of appeal would be the Chesterfield County Circuit Court.

The committee will recommend a draft ordinance, which will appear in the legal notice section of this newspaper. Additionally, the commission plans to notify all affected property owners by mail. To see a list of the affected property owners, go to www.chesterfieldobserver.com and click on "Special."