Beaufort Co. Council repeals school fees. Money going back to property owners
Beaufort County will end school impact fees and return any money collected from developers and home builders for these fees, which were collected for less than a year.
The change comes after Beaufort County Council voted 9-2 Monday to repeal the school impact fees, an ordinance first introduced last month. Council members Alice Howard and Paul Sommerville were the opposing votes.
No Beaufort County School Board members or the superintendent spoke at the meeting. While there were public comments on other impact fees, no residents spoke about this specific ordinance.
The ordinance to repeal the school impact fees was prompted by a lawsuit that a developer filed against Beaufort County over the fees, officials learned last week during a meeting between county, city, town, and school board officials. At the meeting, council chairman Joe Passiment told a reporter that the county planned to repeal the school impact fees Monday because of the legal issue.
One major concern surrounding the impact fees includes municipalities not collecting the fee in their parts of the county, causing unincorporated areas to be the sole payers. Others have cited the lack of support from the school board, and the question of residents possibly getting taxed double when paired with the school referendum.
County Administrator Eric Greenway said he initially recommended the council adopt the school impact fee last year when it was possible portions of the county would be annexed by the Town of Hardeeville. If the fees were in place and the annexations were successful, the county would still be able to collect on them, he said.
However with the annexations not happening and municipalities, such at the Town of Bluffton, not collecting the same fees, he said “the time has come now for us as a county to stop collecting it.”
Council member concerns
Most of council agreed with Councilman Logan Cunningham saying the fees are “completely repetitive” and Councilman Stu Rodman calling it “double taxation.”
“I think this is totally different than all the other fees, and we need to retire this,” Rodman said.
He said the county is trying to make housing affordable but the impact fee will increase the costs people pay when they move to the area.
Councilman Mark Lawson, who previously supported impact fees, said he changed his mind and thought it was unfair for the fee to only be collected in the unincorporated areas. He said he’d be open to discussing the reinstatement of the fee in the future if the school board led the call to do so.
Council members Gerald Dawson and Brian Flewelling agreed that all municipalities need to collect the fee for it to be fair.
“Until we get to a point where all the municipalities sign on to school impact fees it’s unfair, and we need to do right by our citizens and repeal this,” Flewelling said.
Those who voted to keep the school impact fees pointed to the need for funding.
Sommerville said he has always supported the fee. Schools are no different than other impact fee beneficiaries, except that they’re often more expensive.
Howard said she agreed it’s not fair for municipalities not to collect the same fees, but found it “difficult” to vote against them.
The county will “begin the process of refunding” money to those who paid the school impact fee.
“Those who paid it first will get their money first,” Greenway said, adding that the money will be given to the property owner of record who may not be the person that paid the impact fee. He said that cannot be disputed with the county.
While the ordinance repealing school impact fees passed Monday night, council voted 10-1 to table its vote to repeal all other impact fees until its June 13 meeting.
This story was originally published April 25, 2022 at 8:58 PM.
