Take a look at impact fees

Dear Editor:

The anti-zoners continue to grossly overstate the impact of impact fees. Impact fees are not part of the zoning ordinance. Passing a zoning ordinance does not guarantee that Morgan County would ever have them. It only allows the possibility that some time in the future they would be implemented.

West Virginia law requires that seven standards be met before impact fees can be implemented. Zoning would be the sixth requirement met if it passes. Then a Capital Improvement Plan would need to be written and adopted. That would take one or two years.

Even then, fees can only be implemented after there is a negative impact from development that results in a dramatic increase in service costs to the county. This would include the need for more law enforcement personnel, infrastructure costs and other service costs. Only after that negative impact, and not before, can the fees be adopted.

At the time, fees can only be implemented for the actual costs of the new residents and not anything above that. The anti-zoners love to point to the fees in Jefferson County being $13,000 per housing unit. Although that is an actual number, it has no relevance to Morgan County where the impact would be much less. I would guess that if impact fees were ever used in Morgan, they would be in the $2,000 range per dwelling.

Even if the developers pass the cost on to the new home owner when factored in on a standard 30-year mortgage, it would only raise the cost of a home by about $10 a month.

The anti-zoners thrive on saying that impact fees would prevent their children from ever owning a home in Morgan County. I find it hard to believe that someone would not be able to live here due to an increase of $10 a month. Keep in mind that impact fees are only paid on new homes. Anyone buying an older home would pay no fee.

Given the economic conditions in Morgan County and the fact that almost no new houses are being built at this time, it would be several years before impact fees would be implemented and possibly longer. Zoning would give us the opportunity to be ready in case the need arises in the future for such fees. It is impossible to be in favor of impact fees without being in favor of zoning.

George Farnham
Unger