A city faces one of its bigger calls in recent memory. So, why so quiet in Tega Cay?
Tega Cay City Council has a big decision on its table. Just don’t expect a dramatic one.
When the group gathers Aug. 6 to, among other decisions, finalize new development impact fees, it isn’t likely to come with any heated exchanges or spirited back-and-forth. At least so far, council members all seem to be reading off the same page.
“While I certainly understand some will have concerns about both the Fort Mill school district fees and the Tega Cay impact fees, the numbers weren’t pulled out of thin air,” said Councilman Gus Matchunis. “Careful studies were commissioned in an effort to help growth pay for growth and keep our taxes from being raised.”
Councilwoman Heather Overman agrees.
“From my point of view, the fees are positive,” she said. “It forces growth to pay for growth and allows us to invest back in to the city in the areas critical to what make Tega Cay what it is — public safety and recreation.”
On July 16, the city passed the first of two votes needed to charge impact fees, billed on new construction to generate money for growth-related infrastructure costs. The city eyed new recreation, police, fire and utility fees. A typical new home could generate more than $8,000 in fees. Businesses would be charged based on size — the bigger the business, the bigger the fee.
That July 16 vote passed unanimously. No one in a sizeable crowd spoke out against the fees. When Mayor David O’Neal announced during the meeting that York County Council — meeting at the same time in York — had just approved a more than $18,000 per new home impact fee for the Fort Mill school district, applause broke out in Tega Cay.
Tega Cay Councilwoman Alicia Dasch said similar concerns in her city and neighboring Fort Mill and York County are connected, where significant residential growth in recent years means increased need for school, police, fire, recreation and other public service funding.
“It will require multiple efforts and from multiple jurisdictions,” Dasch said. “There are a few tools in our tool box that we can use to begin fixing the problem. One of those tools is the implementation of impact fees on new development.”
Arguments against fees, specifically that homes will cost more and builders or realty companies may struggle, don’t sway Councilman Ryan Richard.
“I feel the city is doing what it must to ensure the residential growth that was approved by previous councils will pay for itself,” he said. “The Tega Cay-Fort Mill area is the best place to live in the area and developers know homes will sell.”
What’s unusual about the Tega Cay fee plan is how quiet any opposition side has been.
When Fort Mill passed fees in 2015, the votes were 4-3, with months of discussion on whether fees would hurt business or other growth sectors. The York County Regional Chamber of Commerce and others came out in opposition. Even the school impact fee decision just ahead of Tega Cay’s vote met organized opposition from state homebuilder and Realtor groups.
Part of why there hasn’t been organized dissent in Tega Cay may be familiarity. The school district started charging a smaller fee of $2,500 back in 1996. Fort Mill hasn’t seen growth grind to a halt in the three years the town has had fees. With each new group to pass them, there is more of a track record.
It’s similar to what has happened with York County’s 1-cent sales tax for roads, Pennies for Progress. Pennies was the first program of its kind in South Carolina. Voters had the choice of charging a sales tax within the county to fund improvements on their own and state-maintained roadways.
The first time voters went to the polls to decide it, in 1997, Pennies passed with just 51 percent approval. Despite funding issues and delayed projects, along with many more miles of road on the ground since it began, Pennies approval rates increased steadily to 73 percent in 2003 and 82 percent in 2011. Last fall, 78 percent of voters approved the latest round.
Still, impact fees aren’t universally lauded. The issue of senior housing came up specific to the school impact fee, where seniors often aren’t the ones sending more children into schools.
Victoria Pagano commented on the recent fees in a Fort Mill Times discussion on Facebook, saying Fort Mill has managed to “tax people right out of the area.”
Council members in Tega Cay acknowledge concerns. Dasch said developers likely won’t see them as positive, since they’ll have to lose out on profit margin or increase home prices to make up the difference. But council members aren’t focusing on developers first.
“Growth and the toll it has taken on our resources and infrastructure is the issue I hear most from residents,” Overman said. “The impact fees help to counteract that.”
Matchunis also considers the cost to residents.
“Providing services and infrastructure for all the new homes coming to Tega Cay comes at great expense, and this allows the new homes to help pay for some of it,” he said.
While much of Tega Cay is developed, and even the city manager said at the recent meeting fees could change or go away in a decade when the city reached full buildout, there are places fees can make a difference.
“We still have developments that were approved by the previous council that haven’t even broken ground yet,” Overman said. “The current council is in agreement that responsible managed growth is what we need right now. If we grow at all, it will be on the commercial side.”
Dasch said she doesn’t take any decision council makes lightly, realizing they impact people’s lives on a daily basis. She thinks about developers, about the possible impact on incoming commercial construction the city so wants to add.
“However,” she said, “when I dig in to the implications of this decision, it is clear to me that it overwhelmingly favors our residents and strategically allows the city to respond to the impacts of growth.”