AG 1999 06 21 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Courts in some states have insisted that an impact fee system be part of a comprehensive plan.37 The calculation of impact fees must be based on an appropriate methodology that is consistent with expected growth and development of the community, and there must be a reasonably definite plan outlining capital facility needs and providing for the construction and funding of necessary capital improvements. Orange County's enabling act establishes a methodology for the calculation of fees and provides for a planning period of up to twenty years, but it does not require the funding of improvements with impact fees to be incorporated into the Orange County Capital Improvements Plan (CIP) or reflected in i~s land-use plan? The county chose to limit its initial planning period to five years, matching the period of its CIP, which includes the school capital projects to be funded in part with the fees. The Benefit Districts The enabling act authorizes the county to establish "at least two ' geographical districts or zones" such that the funds collected from new development in such an area "must be spent on improvements that are located within or that benefit property located within those districts or zones."39 The county chose to establish two such districts--one for the Orange County Schools and one for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Schools. The decision to segregate the fees collected in one school administrative unit from those collected in the other was obvious. Les~ obvious was the decision to refrain from dividing the areas within each unit into subdistricts or subzones within 37 Id. 3a. 1987 N.C. Sess. Laws ch. 460, § 17, amending G.S. 153A-331(c)(1). ~. Id., G.S. 153A-331(d)(2).