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Berkeley County mulls impact fee to improve roads
By Jessica Johnson
Contributing Writer
Berkeley County Council moved forward this month with a transportation impact fee that developers would pay when building in the unincorporated areas surrounding Ladson, Moncks Corner, Goose Creek and Hanahan.
The council’s plan is to approve a transportation impact fee ordinance to go into effect in 2007. The Land Use Committee voted Oct. 9 to recommend adopting a capital improvements plan for roads, along with a transportation impact fee study.
“I really feel like this is something we have to have because we have to build these roads and nobody wants the money coming out of their own pocket,” said Phillip Farley, Berkeley County Council member and chairman of the committee on land use.
State laws governing impact fees leave Berkeley County Council members to decide what percent of the maximum allowable transportation impact fee to charge and what land use categories to include in the proposed impact fee schedule.
The transportation fee is limited by studies showing how development will affect a geographic area and new developments’ share of the cost.
The impact fee study, prepared by Kimley-Horn and Associates of North Carolina, divided Berkeley County into five geographic zones. Just one area, Zone 1, would be affected enough to charge the transportation impact fee.
Zone 1 includes the areas of Moncks Corner, Goose Creek, Hanahan and Ladson and is also home to Parks of Berkeley and Cane Bay Plantation. Both are mixed-use developments that plan to build more than 20,000 housing units combined. The transportation impact fee study found that 10 current roads and two new roads would be affected by growth in Zone 1 and included those roads in the capital improvement plan.
The two new roads are directly associated with Cane Bay and Parks of Berkeley. One is a four-lane spine road that would run from the Sheep Island Road interchange with Interstate 26 through Parks of Berkeley and Cane Bay and connect with U.S. Highway 17 A. The other is an extension of Wildgame Road from Sheep Island Road to the unnamed spine road. According to the proposed capital improvement plan, all funds from the transportation impact fees received in the first five years would go toward the construction of the spine road and the interchange.
The proposed impact fees is projected to generate $47.6 million through 2020, covering 39% of the costs to improve effected roads, if Berkeley County decided to charge 70% of the maximum allowed impact fee.
The transportation study suggests improving the 10 deficient roads through a series of widening projects. The study recommends expanding portions of Howe Hall, Jedburg and Myers roads from two to three lanes, widening North Rhett Avenue and U.S. highways 176, 17 A and 52 from four to six lanes and widening Old Mount Holly Road and Old U.S. Highway 52 from two to three lanes.
The widening of Liberty Hall Road was in the county’s capital improvement plan but because it is already deficient, improvements cannot be funded through impact fees under state law.
Berkeley County Planning Commission member Edward Southard told the county’s Committee on Land Use that he is against the impact fee because the state requires new schools, churches and other nonprofit organizations to pay the fee. He suggested the county look at something such as a sales tax for road projects.
Berkeley County Councilman Steve Davis also voted against the third reading of the study and improvement plan during the land use meeting Oct. 9. He expressed concerns about a family already in Zone 1 having to pay a transportation fee just for building a new home on the same land.
According to the proposed ordinance, people rebuilding homes of the same square footage would be exempt from paying the fee.
Jim Rozier, Berkeley County supervisor, said the proposed ordinance allows people to plead their case: If they can show their proposed construction would not impact traffic patterns, they would be exempt from paying the fee.
The county could propose paying for road improvements another way but something such as a sales tax could not be approved until the general election November of 2008, Rozier said.
“We don’t have another method tonight,” Rozier said.
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