Commissioners Vote to Increase Impact Fees

At the March 15th meeting of the Macon County Legislative Body commissioners voted to increase the impact fees, which is a one-time fee imposed on anybody building a house.

Impact fees in Macon County were set up in 2004 at $1 per square foot. The Macon County Commissioners said they had never been changed so they wanted to increase them, due to the influx of people moving into Macon County. Jeff Hughes made the motion, and it was seconded by Bartley to increase the fees from $1 to $2.50 per square foot. The motion carried with 20 voting yes.  Mayor Jones does not have a vote unless there is a tie.

According to Macon County Mayor Steve Jones, he has been getting a lot of calls from contractors and suppliers wondering why the fee went up. Mayor Jones said the fee hasn’t increased since 2004, so the commissioners felt this was needed. With the growth that Macon County has going on, and the influx of people moving into the county and building houses, the commissioners feel the growth should pay for the infrastructure growth that we are having to do.

“Working on our roads, building a new school and adding onto the justice center are just a few of the things being affected by the growth,” saod Mayor Jones. “The County is being affected in so many ways. Macon County is increasing in every direction of the county with new construction. We are growing, and Macon County’s population is growing. I hate that it has increased, but the county commissioners understand what the influx of housing is doing to Macon County’s infrastructure and are having hard choices to do what they think is the best to help pay for the services the County has to provide.”

Also, at the meeting, Macon County Commissioners authorized Mayor Jones to advertise for applications to fill the 9th and 10th district school board member vacancy, due to the resignation of Mr. Bryan Nichols, who has moved out of his district. Therefore, he is no longer eligible to serve on the board.