‘Does not make any sense’: Why there’s pushback on that $30,000 per home fee in Fort Mill
The idea of charging builders a nearly $30,000 fee for each new home built in the Fort Mill School District doesn’t sit well with everyone in York County. Including some of the people whose votes could make it happen.
“This does not make any sense,” said York County Council Chairwoman Christi Cox.
On Monday night, council passed the first of three votes needed to increase school impact fees. But questions still have to be answered before Cox would support a final vote, she said. And she wasn’t alone.
“There’s way more to a county than just the schools,” said Councilman Tommy Adkins.
The $30,000 fee proposal would increase the fee for building a new home from its current amount of over $18,000. Builders or developers pay the fee, with costs passed on to homeowners through higher new home sale prices.
Here are five key points to consider:
What are school impact fees?
A development impact fee is a charge on new construction. The money paid when permits are issued to a builder helps offset growth costs brought on by that construction. Schools are one of several public uses — police, fire service, recreation, utilities are others — that can get impact fee money.
Fort Mill set up a $2,500 fee in 1996. It applied to each new home or apartment, and for many years was the only school impact fee in South Carolina. In 2018, the school district asked York County for an increased fee. The county has to approve, collect and distribute impact fee money for the district.
Council set new fees at their current rate of more than $18,000 per home and $12,000 per apartment. Last year the impact fee generated more than $10 million. It’s produced $67.7 million in the past six years.
Why is the impact fee possibly increasing?
The school district fee expires June 30. So the district didn’t apply to increase its current fee, but to replace it. Council could decide to approve a higher amount, the existing amount, no amount or anything in between.
The district used the same process for the new fee that it did in 2018. It’s outlined in state law. It’s a math formula for what facilities and programs the district has, and what it would cost to maintain the same service level as growth happens. Then, those amounts are split into proportionate shares for each new residence.
The maximum amounts for the new impact fee, based on that math, are $29,640 per new home and $20,796 per new apartment.
What’s the downside of new impact fees?
Adkins represents the western side of York County. He recalls a time not too long ago, he said, when Fort Mill was no bigger than York. Now Fort Mill has more than three times as many residents.
“One reason why I run is because I don’t want to see what happened to Fort Mill happen to my side of the county,” Adkins said. “And we’re fighting it every day.”
An extra $30,000 on homes where they’re already some of the most expensive in the county, he said, could make Fort Mill unaffordable for police officers or firefighters.
“Are you building a certain status of salary, of neighborhood, where only certain people can afford to live in a certain area?”
Schools already make up the bulk of tax bills, he said, while needs like road repair or other public services lack enough funding. Cox supports public schools, she said, and voted for the 2018 fee. But she wonders how teachers, restaurant workers, first responders and others will be able to live in Fort Mill.
The fee adds cost but not value to a home, she said. At current 7% interest rates, Cox said, a $30,000 fee wrapped into a home mortgage could cost more than $70,000.
“You certainly don’t get to be No. 1 in the state for no reason,” Cox said, referencing Fort Mill’s consistent test score and other rankings placing it as the top public school district in South Carolina. “But I do think a large part of that has to do with socioeconomics. And I live in a district where folks don’t make this kind of money.”
The 52-square-mile Fort Mill School District includes Fort Mill, Tega Cay and unincorporated space between them. The median home sales price last year was $493,000 in Fort Mill and $495,000 in Tega Cay, according to Canopy Realtor Association. Those figures are some of the highest in the Charlotte metro area. The York County median sales price, even including those areas, was $394,900.
Does Fort Mill want the school impact fees?
The dozens of people who came out Monday to make their case on school fees weren’t unanimous in supporting them, but it was close. Julio Moreno wants to build a house for his daughter, and isn’t sold that impact fees save existing residents money in reduced bond votes needed to fund schools, like the district says.
“It really doesn’t help us,” Moreno said. “It just increases every price.”
Lynn Martin moved to Fort Mill 40 years ago, from another part of the state that didn’t have the same strong public support, he said. Fort Mill schools were some of the state’s best when he got here, he said, and that reputation is tied directly to community growth.
“When you talk about people moving to Fort Mill, early on, they talk about the schools. And that’s a big reason why (they move there),” Martin said.
Long-time Solicitor Kevin Brackett moved to Fort Mill more than 20 years ago. Brackett knew he was signing up for continued school bond votes and measures to fund growth, he said.
“There’s nothing more important than strong schools, and that’s what makes that community great,” Brackett said. “But the cost should not be born exclusively by the residents.”
Impact fees are a way for newcomers to commit to a school system that, Brackett said, is a big part of why so many of them found Fort Mill.
“The people coming there are coming there because they know that it is an outstanding school system, and their children will get first-rate educations there,” he said.
Each time there’s been a new or increased fee, there have been concerns expressed on how it would impact community growth. Martha Kinard was a school board member when that 1996 fee began. The district had fewer than 4,000 students and five schools then. Now it has more than 18,000 students and 20 schools, with two more under construction.
“Those impact fees did not slow growth, and have not slowed growth,” Kinard said. “Baxter Village was just an idea on paper at that time.”
Impact fees are a way to fund new schools or other needs that growth will bring, she said.
“The real beneficiaries of impact fees are our students,” Kinard said, “and that’s how it should be.”
What happens next?
The new fee still has two votes to go. Council next meets (except for a workshop) on March 17, then again on April 7. Agendas for those meetings haven’t been published.
Two of the seven council members weren’t present Monday. Two others, based largely on public input, showed support for the new fees.
“It makes a world of difference to hear from the public, and hear from everybody across the board,” said Councilman Tom Audette.
Audette represents much of the same area as the Fort Mill School District. He’s also a former school board member in Fort Mill. Councilman Watts Huckabee represents Rock Hill, and wasn’t on county council in 2018 when Fort Mill got its existing fee. Huckabee heard plenty on Monday.
“The citizens that have spoken have shared enough for me to understand why I should support this,” he said.
