Lake impact-fee program aims to spur homebuilding
Lake County commissioners have fine-tuned a new impact-fee waiver program designed to encourage residential construction in older and blighted neighborhoods.
The program is a year-long experiment by commissioners that allows homebuilders to be exempted from school impact fees — $9,324 for a single-family home — on new-home construction that meet certain requirements.
The program aims to provide incentives for builders to fill out older neighborhoods with empty lots. With the new changes recently approved, new homes can only qualify if schools in an area have space for more students.
“What we’re trying to do is enhance … some of our older areas while at the same time trying to make these homes as affordable as possible,” Commissioner Leslie Campione said at a meeting last month. “Hopefully, it’ll help economically in those areas that could use a shot in the arm.”
Lake school officials have been reluctant to embrace any cut in funding to build new schools in the crowded district of 43,000 students. Earlier this year, a report said 40 percent of district schools will be over capacity by 2021.
“We would never advocate for reducing our budget, particularly when our needs are quite extensive,” School Board Chairman Marc Dodd said. “This all goes back to the very same [impact fee] proposal that we were bullied to support, because if we didn’t support it the commissioners could slash our impact fees in half.”
Commissioners praised the pilot program, which is maxed out at a total of $250,000 in waivers over a year. But Commissioner Josh Blake said he isn’t finished looking at impact fees.
“We have an impact-fee issue that needs to be addressed countywide,” said Blake, who was elected in November. “Just put that on the record: I think we need to reduce impact fees across the board.”
Campione echoed that sentiment: “I have to say I’ve never been a proponent of impact fees because they have these unintended consequences that end up pushing people into suburban areas and new neighborhoods.”