From Topix Kingsland:
concerned person
Newport News, VA
12 min ago Last night the commisioners voted to keep the impact fees and not to refund those that have already been paid. While I understand the need to pay for sewage, water, roads, library, emergency services, fire services for the emerging developments. The money has to come from somewhere. SO, it makes sense to charge those individuals in those types of areas for those services. But, what about the individual who is building his own home on a private road (non-county mantained), putting a septic tank in, putting a well in, Who has a pond in his front yard for fire trucks to use in case of fire, lives less than a mile from a county fire station. Has no kids in school (no need for a library), lived in the county his entire life. Lets face it. It is unfair for that person to pay 2105.00 for developing subdivisions elsewhere in the county. Its is unfair for that person to pay 2105 for services he does not get!
Okay, Camden Commentary readers, before I tell you the facts, why don't y'all think it over and give us your thoughts?
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
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5 comments:
Life is not fair.
Camden County is not Alice's Restaurant where you can get anything you want. Or nothing.
Also, "tough noogies."
Thank you for putting so much thought into that observation.
Let's see, last night Terry Thrift gave this same situation as he was ging to build his own home. He says he is not using any county services? He lives on a private road. However he drives on a county owned and maintained dirt road to get to his private road. He also has a pond for the firefighters. So I can think of a few issues for him to consider. A fire truck will come when called to his new home. A rescue unit will come if called. He will be living far from a county maintained road so the county risk bogging down a unit on his road that is not up to county standards and maybe even damaging the equipment, but they WILL respond. A fire station within a mile of him does aid him in that there is a lower ISO rating for him to benefit from. And he is in such a minority that he cannot be excluded from the impact fees. And I have seen too many times a life long county individual build on his own land for his personal home only to sell it and build yet another home that he wanted. And then sell that home to pay for another home that he decided he wanted to build. Yet he is not a contractor by his definition?? So how could you single a Terry Thrift out and a Randy Gunter?? Gunter was at the meeting last night because he wanted his fees back. Didn't stop him from building, he just wanted his fees. These two individuals are in the smallest of a minority. And while I am speaking. Terry said he does not use the services such as water and sewer and schools and library?? I live in Saint Marys where I pay my city taxes. We have water and sewer, a library, police dept. and fire dept. Yet every November I am billed county taxes and school taxes and yet I do not use the county services. Terry, why should I pay county taxes also???
That's the ticket. Apparently, some folks think that this is a fee designed to keep more "damned outsiders" from coming in - a bill from which locals should be exempt.
Leaving that absurdity aside, I assume that these gentlement building on their own property were no born ind reared in the family lean to on said property and live in it to this day. I assume that they are living in another hosue somewhere in the county while building on their property. Now, unless they plan to tear down the house they are now living in when they finish the new one, the completion of the new house will ad one more home to the county and, oif someone form out of the county buys their old home that weill actually cause a net increase in people as well as a net increase in houses, not to mention cars onthe road. As the previous commenter saId, they willl have services available to them. Some, one would hope they will never need, but they are there. Whether they use libraries and recreational facilities is up to them but they are there.
Question: If in one year two hundred new homes are built in the county - 100 by one developer in one S/D and the other hundred by 100 individuals, is the impact of each 100 not the same?
Clearly, there is no legitimate reason to differentiate betwen developers / builders and porivate individuals when it comes to assessing impact fees. Moreover, as much as this sounds like something Sears and Rainer would love to do, it would never survive a 14th Amendment challenge in court.
Damn, the old blood sugar needs pumping up. Sorry for the typos.
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