The Columbia County Board of Commissioners approved the second reading of amendments to fee schedules for the clay courts fee schedule at the Columbia County Racquet Center, building standard, water utility and the land development fees in the Stormwater Compliance Department during the meeting on Tuesday, June 20.
Assistant County Manager Glenn Kennedy told commissioners the resolution is to establish the fees for the clay tennis court memberships at the Columbia County Racquet Center.
“It sets those fees at $350 for Columbia County residents, $275 for Columbia County residents 55 and older and $500 for non-Columbia County residents,” Kennedy said.
For the water utility fee schedule, Assistant County Manager Matt Schlachter said at the last meeting commissioners decided to go with one fee instead of the fee increases over a three-year period.
“This year alone, utilities are going to see $2.5 million increase in power and chemical costs, costs we can’t control,” Schlachter said. “We’ve got to buy the chemical, and we have to pay for the power. Just that $2.5 million cost alone, these rates will cover that cost. We won’t lose money; we won’t dip deeper into our fund balance. The more we dip into fund balance, the less projects we can build, expanding water lines, expanding sewer lines, we think it’s a good fix to keep us moving forward for several years.”
District 3 Commissioner Gary Richardson said when there was a request in 2016 to increase the water fees, he and Chairman Doug Duncan were against the increase because there was a healthy fund balance. But the fund balance has decreased since then, and to maintain where the county is, the increase is needed.
Jay Frye with the Home Builders Association of the Greater Aiken-Augusta Region spoke to commissioners about the building fee increases, TAP fee increases and land disturbance fee increases. He said the goal of the organization is for there to be affordable housing in Columbia County and the organization would like a seat at the table when discussions about the fees are occurring. In a letter he read, Frye said the increases could further slowdown construction and renovations.
“It is our understanding that these increases were prompted by the decrease in the number of permits in the county,” Frye said. “The effect of these fee increases however goes much deeper. We are concerned that the proposed increases will only make the obtainability of owning a home for families even more difficult.”
Frye said that based on the county’s 2021 median income of $82,251 and the guidance of Freddie Mac that a family shouldn’t spend more than 28% of their monthly income on a home, that makes the average price of a home based on the median income in Columbia County $293,000.
“For the most part in our county, this product no longer exists in new construction,” Frye said. “There’s also minimal resources in this price point as well.”
District 4 County Commissioner Alison Couch said she did a quick search on Zillow and found about a third of the homes for sale in Columbia County were under $293,000.
“Hopefully we’re making some strides in the right direction for some attainable housing for our citizens,” Couch said.
Commissioners approved the fee schedule for the building standards. Schlachter said the county has been dipping into the fund balance for the last few years when it came to this department.
“This is not a knee jerk reaction to the downed permits this year,” Schlachter. “We’ve been spending that fund balance down to get it into our 180-day range we like to see.”
Commissioners also approved amending the fee schedule for the land development fees in the Stormwater Compliance Department. Schlachter said the costs cover a lot, including sending out the inspectors to the sites, they have to go out a certain number of times per law, stop work orders for violations and other behind work that takes place in the office.
“This does not get us to covering our entire costs,” Schlachter said. “We did not feel that it was appropriate to bring you a fee that would cover all the costs associated with this. We do have other revenue sources to cover some of these costs. But these get us about 50% there.”
Stephanie Hill is a staff writer covering Columbia County government for The Augusta Press. Reach her at stephanie@theaugustapress.com.
