Town 'N Country: Residents question image left by waiving fees
The county has deemed the community free of impact fees to push development, but some say it makes them seem poor.
By JACKIE RIPLEY
Published May 21, 2004
TOWN 'N COUNTRY - Impact fees, by their very nature, are controversial. But in Town 'N Country, it's the lack of that government levy that is drawing fire.
That's because early this year, Hillsborough County commissioners made Town 'N County an impact-fee-free zone, waiving those construction fees to encourage redevelopment. The program, which includes a handful of other communities in Hillsborough, will sunset in five years.
Some Town 'N Country residents aren't pleased, arguing that this move makes their community look too poor.
"We have some poverty in Town 'N Country, but this was too broad a brush," said Carlton Lewis, who lives in Timberlane and also is president of the Town 'N Country Alliance. "I don't like the flavor."
The impact-fee-free zones were selected because they are in Community Development Block Grant areas, said Susan Finch, the county's impact fee manager. Block grant areas qualify for federal funding for transportation and water projects because their household incomes are lower than average.
That's the part that most concerns Lewis.
"It's going to basically lower our property values," he said. "You have to be impoverished or have to have some kind of economic strife" to qualify for CDBG designation.
Impact fees are tacked onto the price of new construction and are designed to recover part of the government's costs associated with providing new residents with public services. Impact-fee-free zones waive those fees.
Supporters say waiving impact fees encourages growth in depressed areas and makes it less expensive to build homes so the savings in cost can be passed on to people who might not otherwise be able to afford homes. It also increases property tax revenues.
Opponents say it's a handout for developers and costs the county millions for roads and other basic services.
Ed Crawford, who lives in Fawn Ridge and also is a board member of the Town 'N Country Alliance, said the impact-fee-free designation could be a good thing if it is used for redevelopment.
Then, "people would be ecstatic," he said. But not "if it's used by people in the development community to bypass impact fees."
Crawford also questioned the boundaries of the zone.
"I think the boundaries need to extend southward down to Memorial Highway," he said. "It ends at Hillsborough Avenue."
The 4,511-acre impact-fee-free zone in Town 'N Country is bordered on the south by Hillsborough Avenue, on the north by W Linebaugh Avenue, on the west by Montague Street and on the east by Hanley Road - with a dog leg almost to the Veterans Expressway near the southern end.
"It would behoove us, or anyone else who takes issue with the boundaries, to come back and suggest some new boundaries," Crawford said.
