YORK COUNTY, S.C. — A York County school district seeing tremendous growth wants to pass on the cost of building new schools to new homeowners.
Channel 9′s Tina Terry learned leaders at York School District 1 want to charge an “impact fee” on new homes in the area.
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They said builders will bring about 2,300 new homes to York County by 2027. That could add about 850 new students to the district and it will create a need for new schools.
“If you’re in Fort Mill, that’s not alarming. They do that on an annual basis. We haven’t seen that in many years -- a 16% increase. We would not be able to house that in our current elementary and middle structure,” said Superintendent Kelly Coxe.
Leaders want to charge an “impact fee” of more than $12,469 for every new single-family home, $10,237 for multi-family units and $11,165 for mobile-home units. The money would be charged to homebuilders, who would then pass on the fee to homeowners.
The money would help pay for a new elementary school and a new middle school, but some say that number might be too high.
Angela Mitchem is raising her family in York County, and she has seen just how fast the community is growing.
“This one subdivision goes to this one school,” Mitchem said. “And they’re saying it’s at capacity and there is another new subdivision next to it, like where are these kids gonna go?”
York County Council has to approve the “impact fee.”
Councilman William Bump Roddey said he wants to make sure that fee is enough.
“The risk is us coming up short and I would hate for us to overtax and come up to high. It could stunt growth in this area. It could slow down housing market. It could over inflate the housing costs here in York as well,” Roddey said.
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School leaders are hoping the fees recommended by their in-depth study into the issue will be approved by the county council.
“We need what the study determined that we need. Those were not numbers that were made up. They’re based on the statue that was written,” Coxe said.
York County Council is set to meet Tuesday evening to discuss the fee proposal and ask school leaders questions. The council is expected to make a final decision by early November.
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