Daily News

RALEIGH - Many city residents think a proposed doubling of impact fees would mainly affect developers planning new submissions.

But the increases, outlined in a one-page summary given to the Planning Commission earlier this week, would be much more far-reaching.

Higher fees would be assessed on everything from schools to cemeteries to day cares, and the increases would be more than double for some, including churches and universities.

"This has been framed solely as a fee on developers," said Brad Mullins, chairman of the Planning Commission, a volunteer board. "My general concern is that this is much bigger than any sound bite. It's much more complex. It's not just as simple as the sound bite of growth paying for itself."

City Council member Philip Isley, the lone Republican on the council, said he's amazed the city is still considering substantially raising impact fees, given the deteriorating economic conditions across much of the country.

"It is certainly far-reaching," Isley said of the proposal. "Tax them all, that's the new mantra."

Under the proposal, the road impact fees for adding 1,000 square feet to a major research university would increase from $814 to $3,451, a 324 percent jump. Road impact fees for churches would increase from $232 to $865 for each 1,000 square feet of space added, a 272 percent increase.

For a church such as Wake Cross Roads Baptist in northeast Raleigh, which is about to undertake a 32,000-square-foot expansion, the new fee structure would have added $20,256 to the cost of the project.

Bryan Brown, head of administration for Wake Cross Roads Baptist, said the church doesn't have a problem paying impact fees, particularly since it doesn't pay property taxes. The increased fees likely wouldn't have caused Wake Cross Roads Baptist, which has about 1,000 members, to scale back its project.

But Brown figures other churches may not be as flexible. (more…)

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