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SCGranny, I tried to give you reps for that post but they STILL say I need to "spread some reputation around" before I can. I'm working on it, really! Great thing your community did, there.
Thanks, TexasHorseLady.. I keep trying to rep you too, here and in the greenliving forum, but it won't let me do it either.
Thing is that ANYONE can do it. Stop letting the community development airheads tell you that you have to offer incentives - if the developers can't see the potential of your area without being paid to do it, they don't belong there anyway. Stop letting the politicians tell you that it HAS to be done this way, and that no one will come if they don't TIF a property or give the developer miliions of dollars in tax breaks.
Developers come to a place EXPECTING to pay impact fees. They know what things cost - for example, it takes $180 per house to provide another 250 homes with police protection - that's a fully dressed, hired cop with benefits, training, and a car and gun. Start adding it up, and an impact fee of $10,000 per house to provide all infrastructure is a good base figure.The developer passes the cost onto the buyer anyway, and the intelligent buyer is happy to move into a place where they KNOW that their costs for a pleasant and safe place to live is factored into their financed home. It is a very simple algebraic formula. The only problem is that most Community Development people and politicians can't do simple math.
Another thing about TIFs - that pisses me off because it isn't explained to people. When you TIF a property, that means they pay no taxes, usually for 7-10 years. That means that no matter WHAT is built there, the locals provide ALL of the infrastructure costs for that place for the TIF period. Then - if it is a commerical or industrial business - they move before the TIF runs out, usually leaving a vacant building STILL supported by taxpayers. It has happened countless times, and is nothing but a taxpayer-paid-for bribe to get someone, anyone, to locate something, anything, somewhere. Even real estate professionals don't get this (or, don't want to). If you hear the word TIF (Tax Increment Finacing), SCREAM bloody murder against it - because it is going to cost YOU.
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