Beaufort Co. schools could make building houses South of Broad River more expensive
Beaufort County School District could raise the cost of building new housing units South of the Broad River by thousands to account for growth, according to a presentation to the school board Tuesday.
A firm brought in to determine what the fee should be predicted the school district could make between $80 million and nearly $89 million collecting impact fees from developers over the next decade to offset the costs of school construction brought on by population growth.
Maryland consulting firm TischlerBise presented two fee options to the board Tuesday with different “credits” for the successful Nov. 5 school bond referendum subtracted from the fee. The credits are intended to keep builders from “paying twice” for school construction, TischlerBise president Carson Bise said Tuesday.
Option one for the impact fee includes all $345 million of approved referendum funds as a credit for the fee. Under this options, builders would pay a $8,660 fee on single-family dwellings and $4,076 fee per unit in multi-family dwellings.
Option two only includes the funding for referendum projects to increase school size in the referendum credit — “less than 10 percent” of the referendum, TischlerBise analyst Colin McAweeney said Tuesday.
Under option two, builders would pay a $9,535 fee on single-family dwellings and $4,508 fee per unit in multi-family dwellings.
McAweeney told board members Tuesday that the firm expects the county to gain 41,000 new residents — about 20 percent of the county’s current population — and 19,000 new housing units over the next 10 years. He projected the district would earn nearly $81 million from the Option One fee by 2030, and nearly $89 million from Option Two.
New housing North of the Broad River would be exempt from the fee in both options, as schools there are “able to absorb all projected enrollment” without building additions, according to McAweeney.
“We didn’t want to charge a fee in the North and have that benefit be seen in the South,” he said.
The board voted to commission an impact fee study alongside the county in 2017 to determine where they could set a one-time fee for new housing units to offset the costs of school construction brought on by population growth, according to previous reporting by Bluffton Today. In September 2018, they approved using TischlerBise to conduct the study for $103,870.
TischlerBise is also handling an impact fee study for the county, which they presented to County Council’s planning commission Wednesday.
“I don’t want to speak for the county, but it’s always easier if you take things together,” Bise said of the potential school and county fees.
South Carolina requires that impact fees are re-evaluated every five years, or before any changes are made to the fee rate. In Fort Mill, a recent 720 percent hike in the school district’s impact fee, which went from $2,500 to $18,000 for single-family housing, has resulted in a legal battle between developers and York County and South Carolina.
Bise, whose firm helped set the new Fort Mill fee, said the reason was the length of time between changing the fee (the $2,500 had been in place since 1996) and the high level of service the school district provided to residents.
The board did not make any decisions on impact fees Tuesday. Bise said the board has no legally required timeframe, but added that the county is “very interested in where you are.”
“There is a reason people want to locate in your community, there is a reason businesses want to locate in your community,” Bise said Tuesday. “And the fact that it’s now a little more expensive to do business is not going to stifle that growth.”
This story was originally published December 13, 2019 at 3:51 PM.