The

clock is ticking as Fayette governments wrestle

over problems with imposition of impact fees to

pay for a new Fayette County Jail, and every day

of delay costs current county residents $6,000,

said County Commission Chairman Harold Bost.

In

a work session Tuesday morning, attorneys,

political leaders and staff members from the

county and local cities decided to take another

stab at coming up with a formula for collection

of the fees that all can agree on.

If

they can't agree, each government can devise a

separate formula, but that could weaken the

county's chances of collecting some of the $25

million cost of the new jail from the new

construction that's making it necessary,

according to Dennis Davenport, assistant county

attorney.

"Will

that cause a red flag? Sure it'll cause a red

flag," Davenport told the group assembled at

the County Administrative Complex Tuesday.

"The DCA [state Department of Community

Affairs] has two options at that point - to

approve it or not to approve it. If they don't

approve it, then we have to see how we can work

this out."

Meanwhile,

Bost interjected, the clock would keep ticking

and more impact fees would be lost.

Impact

fees are charged to new construction to help

defray the cost of new government services made

necessary by growth. A Fayette County task force

has been working for more than a year to devise

impact fees to help pay for the new jail and fire

services, and has asked the cities to collect

fees for the jail, since each city sends its

prisoners to the county jail.

Most

of the cities have agreed in principle, but

contention has developed over whether to charge

the fees for new homes, businesses and

industries, or to charge only for residential

construction.

The

original plan adopted by the County Commission

early this year called for residential-only

impact fees, but the government of Fayetteville

objected because that city's current impact fee

structure includes both residential and

nonresidential.

Davenport

said when county experts began pondering that

objection, they decided that charging the fees to

all types of construction made sense and would

give the county a better chance of getting state

approval of its impact fee plan.

But

leaders in Peachtree City, where most of

Fayette's industrial growth occurs, crunched the

numbers and concluded that the proposed fees for

industrial growth would be too much. If a new

industry the size of Photocircuits were to move

into the city, it would have to pay almost

$400,000 in impact fees, said City Manager Jim

Basinger.

"The

program proposed by the county is putting an

unreasonable burden on the nonresidential, and it

could adversely impact the town in terms of

attracting light industrial development,"

said City Manager Jim Basinger.

The

city, which has set aside land for industrial

development, is "only half done" with

filling that land, said City Attorney Rick

Lindsey.

Davenport

said that doing away with impact fees on business

and industry in Peachtree City would mean

increasing the fee for homes from $794.12 to

about $1,030 in order to generate the $894,000

that new business and industry would have

contributed over 30 years.

But

he warned that state regulators and the courts

might frown on exempting businesses because they

contribute to the need for the new jail.

The

group reached a consensus that a formula for

business and industry based on square footage

might be more equitable than the county's

proposed formula based on the number of

employees.

Davenport

asked each representative to weigh the impact on

crime of ten categories of business and industry,

and promised to try to come up with a new formula

That

might satisfy Peachtree City's council, said

Basinger, as long as there's a cap for the

largest businesses and industries, which already

mitigate their impact on the community by paying

out-of-pocket for transportation improvements

like traffic lights, turn lanes and other

intersection improvements.

If

the governments can agree, they must submit the

plan to the state Department of Community Affairs

and the Atlanta Regional Commission for approval.

Once that's received, then each government must

adopt an ordinance finalizing the plan, requiring

yet another round of public hearings.

In

the best case possible, Davenport said, it will

probably be January before the county can begin

collecting the fees.

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