Baton Rouge Traffic Impact Fees Being Collected; Builders Unhappy
Traffic impact fees being collected; builders unhappy
Source: Baton Rouge Business Report Weekly Real Estate Report
My Commentary Is This:
Baton Rouge homeowners already pay very significant taxes in this Parish, taxes which are mis-managed. Want Evidence? Just drive on Baton Rouge roads and streets…..I think you know what I am talking about now. Recently, I appraised a smaller home in The Lakes At Highland S/D. The $375,000 home has an annual tax bill of $3,176.78 or $265/month added to the monthly mortgage payment. Plus, this homeowner pays 9 cents to 10 cents on the dollar for city retail purchases. This is just for East Baton Rouge Parish taxes. Where is all of this money going that these residents are paying? Bill Cobb, Jr., Appraiser
Since the new traffic impact fee schedule was implemented by Mayor Kip Holden
in late summer, the city-parish has collected $95,678 in permit charges from
small residential and commercial projects. Many projects didn’t pay anything
under the old fee system, which allowed commercial projects that are less than
30,000 square feet to be built without paying a fee — even though many of these
projects boosted the traffic on city-parish roads.
But Passman Homes owner Jerry Passman says the new fee schedule is unfair to
businesses and homebuyers. “These are all taxes that get passed on to the end
user. It’s unfair to buyers that need property.” Passman says there is a need to
raise more money to fix parish roads, but said a wheel tax would be a better
solution, since the money could be used for fixing old roads and older problems,
as opposed to the impact fee, which must only go to new projects.
Passman says the fees that homebuilders pay are being passed directly onto
buyers — and at a slightly higher cost. While the traffic impact fee for a
single family home might be $800, it ends up getting marked up by the standard
12% to 15% profit margin for builders and 5% commission for Realtors. “So you’re
talking $950, and that’s before you put that into a mortgage and pay interest on
it for 22 or 23 years,” he says. “That’s one of the points that the homebuilders
have tried to make.” –Timothy Boone
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