Studio and one-bedroom apartments are the least likely residences to add students to Montgomery County’s school system. But developers still must pay $6,791 to $19,937 per unit in school impact taxes, to generate money for school construction and improvements.
But when a company demolishes an existing home to build a bigger one in its place, it pays nothing in school impact fees, Council Member Evan Glass said in a phone interview on Monday. That’s despite the fact that each dwelling contributes roughly half a student to the school system — 20 percent more than existing single-family homes, according to the Montgomery County Planning Department.
“I don’t think that’s fair,” Glass said.
To close what he views as a “loophole” in the county’s tax structure, he proposed a bill on Tuesday that would levy new fees on those replacement houses, better known within the building industry as “teardown homes.”
“This legislation is all about fairness and equity within our growth policy,” Glass said. “Newly rebuilt homes are not affordable, they have some of the highest student generation rates among all housing types in the county, and yet they contribute nothing to our infrastructure. This has a real impact on our communities, and I think it’s time to address it.”
The bill has already attracted opposition from the building industry, which says the proposal would penalize small business owners and fail to raise the promised funds. Other council members expressed their own doubts after the legislation was introduced on Tuesday, promising a “lively debate” over the bill.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Kate Masters over at Bethesda Magazine