York County has a fix for its road problem on the table. But is it good business?
York County may go a step further than neighboring communities trying to solve one of the biggest regional and national issues facing municipalities.
The county, quite literally, is looking to go the extra miles.
“Anybody in the county would say roads are the top priority,” said York County Councilman Britt Blackwell. “We’ve got to have the roads.”
Council is studying whether to charge impact fees to improve roads. Impact fees, charged on new construction to offset costs associated with growth — such as building and maintaining roads — are the hot item among area planners. Fort Mill passed fees in 2015. Tega Cay has a final vote on adding fees Aug. 6. Lancaster County is studying fees for Indian Land. York County voted in July to increase a decades-old Fort Mill School District impact fee from $2,500 per new home to more than $18,000.
Just an hour before council met for a workshop July 24, counterparts in Chester County went through items they may want to fund using new impact fees.
Yet the roads fee in York County would be unlike any in the neighboring areas.
“It’s going to be a lot more complicated than the Fort Mill schools (fee),” said Councilman Chad Williams.
Challenging roads ahead
Public leaders in York, Lancaster and Chester counties are just about unanimous when they discuss roads. More roads are needed. Roads need widening. Congestion needs fixing. Many leaders say they get more complaints about roads than any other issue.
“These are some of the most critical infrastructure needs you could have in this area,” said Jonathan Guy, consultant with Kimley-Horn.
Guy’s company is working through a new thoroughfare plan for York County. Already he sees there are “numbers that back up the experience that you’re having” on area roads.
The county has seen 5.8 percent growth since 2010, according to his findings. The Charlotte region is up 15 percent. Job growth is up 18 percent in York County since 2005. There are 100,000 people commuting into or out of York County, up by 16,000 people since 2010.
“It’s around Lake Wylie, it’s around Mecklenburg County,” Guy said of growth and traffic issues, “but it’s continuing to creep toward Rock Hill and further south.”
Yet, area municipalities haven’t gone with impact fees to fund new or widened roads. The closest was Fort Mill, which actually passed a transportation fee back in 2015 along with fees for fire service, municipal costs and parks and recreation. The town hasn’t charged anything for the transportation fee yet. It wasn’t, the town said at the time, good for business.
While school or recreation fees can target only residential construction, fees on roads would charge both new homes and business. It’s all about the impact development has, and a major warehouse or business complex drives far more traffic than a single home. Fort Mill leaders struggled with getting more complaints about roads than any other issue; They were equally conscious of wanting to be responsive, while at the same not seem anti-business.
Many from the business community came out in opposition of those fees three years ago. The York County Regional Chamber of Commerce opposed it, and land developers, including now U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman (R-Rock Hill) said they wouldn’t be able to invest as much into their Fort Mill projects if the fees passed. The road fee was by far the most expensive being considered for businesses.
“Our government in Fort Mill has always been a business-friendly government,” former town attorney and Main Street commercial property owner Bayless Mack said at the time. “There’s a perception out there that creates an anti-business (environment).”
Largely based on road fee concerns from businesses, the Fort Mill fees passed by just a single vote and represented the most significant differing vote in the long tenures of council members Tom Adams and Guynn Savage, who both ran for mayor later that year.
Communities are different, and population or public service data would determine exactly what new charges for a road impact fee would be. But business impact isn’t the only concern. The other issue with roads is, even if a fee charges incoming business, the revenue would only cover so much work.
“Impact fees more than likely will not fund 100 percent of those projects (on the thoroughfare plan),” said Audra Miller, growth management coordinator for York County.
Roads are some of the most expensive public needs. Last fall, county voters approved the latest round of Pennies for Progress, the 1-cent sales tax to fund road improvements. The list included 14 new projects, five carryover projects from past Pennies campaigns and resurfacing 80 miles of roadway.
The projected cost is almost $278 million.
A driving need
The thoroughfare plan isn’t complete yet, but preliminary work shows areas where the county is likely to focus.
Pleasant Road, Regent Parkway, Gold Hill Road and Springfield Parkway and S.C. 160 in Fort Mill are priority corridors, Guy said. As are S.C. 274, 49, 557 and 55 in Lake Wylie. Cross-county connections need work, from S.C. 5 — the only continuous road touching the county’s eastern and western borders — to U.S. 321, S.C. 161 and I-77.
The extension of Heckle Boulevard is part of the discussion. As are South Dobys Bridge Road in Fort Mill and Dave Lyle Boulevard in Rock Hill, including the possibility of connecting the two to steer traffic onto U.S. 521 in Indian Land and up into Charlotte.
The thoroughfare plan is likely to focus on the interchanges and arteries off of I-77. The interstate is about as wide as it can get on the South Carolina side, bottlenecking as it narrows in North Carolina.
“We’ve done all we can do with I-77,” Blackwell said.
Experts expect traffic in York County to worsen considerably in coming decades unless major changes happen. Guy sees some areas where growth could come for a while still, like the gap between Lake Wylie and Clover.
“This hole is going to fill in dramatically,” he said, “and quickly.”
Some road plans outside the county impact drivers here, like the interstate narrowing. North Carolina also has a new connector road in the early development stage, similar to but shorter than the failed Garden Parkway plan from I-85 in Gaston County to I-485 in Mecklenburg County. That almost 22-mile road, proposed as a toll road, met criticism from homeowners in the area and elected leaders.
But a new, shorter connection could, if approved, change the way people in Lake Wylie, Clover, northern Rock Hill and elsewhere drive in getting to Charlotte.
“It affects you dramatically,” Guy said.
If York County goes with a road impact fee, it would — like Pennies — be available for state roads in the county. A completed thoroughfare plan could help form the capital needs list required with impact fees.
“We can use that as a starting point,” Miller said.
Not all county roads proposed for the last Pennies campaign made the cut, either, and another round of Pennies won’t come for seven years at the earliest. Non-approved projects from Pennies could be eligible for impact fee funding.
“We could look at pulling from that list as well,” Miller said.
The roads list for impact fees would have to be projects that add capacity, not just repaving of existing roads. Projects have to demonstrate how they would serve growth in the area.
“If it’s failing today, that’s not the growth,” York County Councilman Chad Williams said of road conditions. “But if the growth causes it to fail, that’s different.”
The county also is looking at other areas where impact fees could be charged, from law enforcement to medical service to public works, including landfill and collection center improvements. If impact fees are approved it’s likely the county would need a couple more staff members to keep up with the program.
“It is a tremendous amount of work,” Miller said.
If the county starts any new fees, they would be charged in unincorporated areas. Fort Mill, Tega Cay, Rock Hill and other municipalities make their own decisions on fees, and wouldn’t be charged with the county ones.
The county isn’t committed to any new fees yet, including the road one. The study and required work would take months, perhaps more than a year. But for now, county leaders are committed to seeing the study through to the end.
“If you say you don’t want impact fees for roads,” Miller said, “you at least have a reason why.”
This story was originally published July 25, 2018 at 1:45 PM.