Welcome to 2022 where just about every county in the United States has a plan for growth and how to pay for it…almost (key word). Chester County may soon take what’s become a common page from the playbook of surrounding counties, school districts and municipalities. Per The Herald, “the county resumed talks earlier this month on impact fees.”
The article continued with, “Chester County has received a potential contract with firm TischlerBise. The county attorney in Chester reviewed the contract. It could be approved soon, after the county schedules another meeting with the consultant.” TischlerBise is the same firm that performed impact fees studies for the Fort Mill, Clover and York school districts, municipal impact fees in Fort Mill and elsewhere.
What are impact fees? Is a payment of money imposed as a condition of development approval to pay a proportionate share of the cost of the system improvements needed to serve the people utilizing the improvements. To put it in layman’s terms, it’s a one-time payment imposed by a local government on a property developer.
Development is coming to Chester County but not in waves like other parts of the state. Per the U.S. Census Bureau, Chester County is actually shrinking in size which we have discussed in the past. Chester County has a little more than 32,000 residents which is down about 100 residents from the 2020 Census. More surprising is the fact the county is down almost 1,000 residents since 2010.
Why is the county not adding impact fees? Per the same article in The Herald, “At some point the council is going to have to make a decision, whether we’re going to impose impact fees or development fees,” said interim Chester County supervisor Wylie Frederick. It was also stated from another source, “If the county goes with impact fees, state law requires both a list of projects the money would fund and a study to determine how much the county could charge for various public services.”
It appears from the article a lot of money is being left on the table.
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