Developers may soon have to pay for how their growth impacts the City of Fountain Inn.
Fountain Inn is considering imposing development impact fees for new residential and commercial builders, which are projected to bring in roughly $14.5 million to the city over 10 years.
The fees would be issued alongside new building permits and are designed to offset the cost that growth in the city has on its existing infrastructure, particularly police, fire, and parks and recreation services.
Funds from development impact fees can only be used for capital improvements or debt service for growth-related infrastructure, and can not be used for operations, maintenance, replacement of infrastructure, or correcting existing deficiencies.
GROWTH
According to a study commissioned by the city, the average annual single housing unit growth from 2020 to 2024 was 352 units, and from 2019 to 2024 multifamily housing unit growth averaged 66 per year. However the study projects residential growth to nearly double over the next 10 years, from 12,440 single and multifamily housing units to a projected 22,789 by 2034.
To curb the effects of that growth, the development impact fees as currently proposed would amount to no more than $3,137 per unit for each single family housing unit and no more than $2,678 per unit for multifamily housing units.
The study also projects non residential floor area development to increase from 1,358,000 square feet of space to 2,487,000 square feet of space by 2034.
Non residential development would not have to pay fees for parks and recreation impacts, making their maximum fees to $576 per 1,000 square feet of space for industrial development, $2,889 per 1,000 square feet of space for commercial/retail development, $1,282 per 1,000 square feet of space for office development, and $1,763 per 1,000 feet of space for institutional developments.
The Fountain Inn City Council approved a first reading of the development impact fees ordinance at its May 8 meeting and will take up a second reading at its next meeting.