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20 Points To Know <br />About Impact Fees <br /> <br />Impact fees are an increasingly popular <br />new revenue source to local governments. <br />While there are a number of advantages to <br />impact fees and related exactions, there are <br />limitations. As communities and development <br />groups become more sophisticated on what <br />should be expected from a thorough impact fee <br />study, they will become more critical and their <br />level of expectation will increase. This article <br />briefly notes 20 non-technical points of which <br />one should be aware. <br /> <br />1. Impact fees are viewed as a.iS'ee revenue <br />sou~'ce without any constituency reqtd~'ement. <br />Impact fees may be voted in without an election, <br />usually apply only to new development (which <br />does not yet exist) and are perceived to exclude <br />current taxpayers. Therefore, impact fees are <br />a fairly painless and free revenue source <br />since there is no obvious increase in cost to <br />current voters. <br /> <br />2. Impact fees pertain only to new capital <br />facilities which directly benefit the payer. <br />Many people still believe that impact fees can be <br />utilized for capital facilities which benefit exist- <br />ing residents. However, expenditures utilizing <br />impact fees must show a direct benefit to those <br />paying. Under some statutes, an existing facility <br />can generate impact fees if it was oversized to <br />serve the new development. <br /> <br />3. The impact fees collected must be spent within <br />a reasonable time period. A mandated or gen- <br />eral rule-of-thumb is about six years, although <br /> (continued on next l~g~) <br /> <br /> <br />