Forsyth County to raise impact fees

By SHELBY ISRAEL shelby@appenmedia.com

FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. — Forsyth County commissioners have agreed to amend the county’s impact fee ordinance each January to adjust for inflation.

The commission adopted the measure unanimously at its March 7 work session. The decision will be formalized at the board’s March 16 meeting, and it will raise 2022 impact fees by 6.4 percent beginning in October.

Impact fees are placed on new land developments to fund government services they may draw from, like roads, parks and public safety.

County Chief Financial Officer Marcus Turk said the impact fee ordinance had not been amended since 2016, but the automatic adjustment component was first featured in the January 2004 ordinance.

“After an extensive search of documents, I have been unable to locate any documented automatic adjustments since 2004,” Turk said. “The process will now be implemented to ensure the automatic adjustment provision of the impact fee ordinance is completed as stated this year and in future years.”

Turk said the automatic adjustment in the ordinance is calculated by the annual consumer price index. The January 2023 index places a 6.4 percent increase on the 2022 baseline impact fees.

County Attorney Ken Jarrard said impact fees analyze the county’s baseline cost of services, which is then used to determine the additional financial burden that a new project would create and propose a fee that maintains the county’s baseline.

“It is almost, really, sort of a retroactive tax to take the burden of new development off of our citizens and put it onto new individuals coming, because any new individuals or services or entities that come to the county necessarily dilute the delivery of the services we provide,” Jarrard said. “More people move in, more burden on roads. More people move in, more burden on 911, et cetera.”

Commissioners voted 4-0 to adopt the ordinance. Commissioner Laura Semanson was absent.

School resource officers

Also at the work session, commissioners approved the addition of six school resource officers in an agreement between the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office and the Forsyth County School District.

Director of Employment Services

Charity Clark said the School Board will fund the benefits and salaries for the additional officers.

Sheriff Ron Freeman said the agreement followed the outcry after the 2022 elementary school shooting in Uvalde,

Texas, and he and the Board of Education agreed to have one officer on every campus. Freeman said there will no longer be joint campus officers, even if two schools are across the street from one another. If new schools are added, the Sheriff’s Office and the school board will split the cost of new officers evenly, Freeman said.

Playground replacement

Commissioners also approved $200,000 to Playground Creations for the design and installation of the playground at Coal Mountain Park. Interim Parks and Recreation Director Laura Pate said the amount is included in the department’s capital replacement budget.

Pate said the project will replace the 21-year-old playground and the rubber surfacing on the universal playground near the front of the park.

Commissioners also unanimously approved the creation of a cottage food administrative permit that allows county residents to sell approved food items out of their homes. According to the Georgia Department of Agriculture, these foods include cakes, breads, pastries, jams, seasonings and confections.

The property must be zoned agricultural or agricultural-residential, and applicants must pay a $25 fee for the annual permit, as well as obtain a state cottage food license.