Sussex County Council asked county staff to draft legislation that would add a building permit fee to help fund school construction.
Council member Steve McCarron led the discussion on capital funding for schools at Tuesday’s County Council meeting.
He asked council members to decide between impact fees like the ones in place in Kent County and voluntary school assessments, which are in place in New Castle County.
McCarron said he thinks impact fees, which would allow the county to collect up to 1.25 percent of construction value, would suit Sussex better.
“I think the VSA would have a negative effect versus a building permit model, which affects everybody. But at the end of the day, everybody pays for school construction when you're paying a tax bill,” McCarron said.
In an interview with Delaware Public Media, Milford School District’s chief operating officer Sara Hale said she would rather developers foot the cost of growth rather than the entire community.
Council Vice President John Rieley was the sole council member to speak against implementing building permit fees.
“You just raise the cost of housing for everybody and the people that are living on the knife's edge,” Rieley said. “Now, suddenly, housing is just that much farther out of reach, and all the problems that cascade as a result of that. So I do not favor the county getting in the middle of this fundraising concept.”
He said he wouldn’t want the fees to apply to building permit applications with construction values of $30 thousand or less.
“If you're going to build a deck, you really shouldn't be offsetting school capacity with your building permit fee. I don't think that's fair,” McCarron said. “But once you start getting to the $60, $90,000 range, or you’re building a spare bedroom.”
The three other council members have interest in implementing impact fees like the policies in place in Kent County.
Council member Jane Gruenebaum said she thinks impact fees hold a greater promise for Sussex County schools.
“I think that this is a matter of, as I've said, a matter of equity, that the current taxpayers don't carry the full burden of the cost of additional schools, but people who move in to pay their fair share.”
Lloyd said he was interested in proceeding forward with the discussion.
“I kind of agree with Steve's rationale, the idea that everybody that's been here that's been contributing to capital costs and new construction are expected to go… vote for basically more taxes on themselves to pay for the capacity as a result of the influx of people that are coming here,” Lloyd said. “So by offsetting that local financial burden to whether it's through a VSA model by taxing major subdivisions or through the impact fee process makes sense to me.”
Rieley argued impact fees will add to the cost of housing and worsen the housing crisis in Sussex County.
“We've had testimony in the last couple of months that tells us that for every $1 thousand on home price increases, 381 Delawareans are priced out of owning a home,” Rieley said. “We hear continuously the complaint that rents are outrageous, and they are, in my opinion… We're going to have a conversation probably the next few weeks about homelessness, and I'm hearing numbers of another 1.25% potentially on as a permit.”
The motion to have county staff draft proposed legislation passed 4-1, with Rieley voting against.
