IMPACT FEES: A construction killer

When I read the letter from Larry Spencer about impact fees I felt I needed to write this letter and say that he is absolutely correct that impact fees are just another way to get more money for the government. I recently added a 7,200-square-foot building to my existing mini storage facility and was hit with impact fees totaling $14,000. The entire building only cost $73,000. If I had built the same building in Eastside Highway District, their impact fee alone would have been more than $49,600! 

My loan officer at the bank told me that other people have canceled their construction projects because of the outrageous impact fees. When I spoke to county commissioner Dan Green about the unjustified fee cost, he told me that I should just raise my storage rates to cover them. It is time to face the facts; we were sold a lie when impact fees were enacted. They aren't about people paying their fair share; they are just another way for our local governments to hold our needed construction projects up for ransom.

ROBERT THOMAS

Hauser