One of the toughest challenges local governments face when dealing with rapid growth and development is how to pay for increased demand for services.
Costs frequently outpace increased tax revenue generated by new homes and businesses, which is one reason the state General Assembly adopted the South Carolina Development Impact Fee Act in 1999.
A growing list of local governments across the state have adopted development impact fees as a means of coping with the costs of providing more services created by rapid growth and, in Greenville County, Greer and Fountain Inn recently began exploring this option.
Catching up
Impact fees are designed to mitigate the pressure of growth and development on demand for government services…