Impact fee
[1] Impact fees are considered to be a charge on new development to help fund and pay for the construction or needed expansion of offsite capital improvements.[2] These fees are usually implemented to help reduce the economic burden on local jurisdictions that are trying to deal with population growth within the area.To finance a water treatment plant expansion, Hinsdale Sanitary District president John A. McElwain implemented a "tap-in" fee of $50 per new residential sewer line.First used to help fund capital recovery fees for water and sewer facilities, then in the 1970s, with the decline of available Federal and State grants for local governments, their use increased and expanded to non-utility uses including roads, parks, schools, and other public services.[2] Golden v. Planning Board of Ramapo and Construction Industry Association of Sonoma County v. The City of Petaluma, California are the legal basis for the use of impact fees to finance public infrastructure throughout the United States.[4] Finally, in the 1980s the impact fee became a universally used funding approach for services and started to include municipal facilities such as fire, police, and libraries.They can also vary depending on the type of need by a community with school facilities causing the greatest cost of an impact fee.Twenty-six US states have implemented the use of impact fees in the western portion of the country, along the Atlantic coast, and within the Great Lakes region.Two main cases that dealt with impact fees development have been Pioneer Trust and Savings Bank v. Mount Prospect and Gulest Associate Incorporated v.[1] Another is Krupp versus Breckenridge Sanitation District, where the Colorado Supreme Court found that a wastewater impact fee was lawful and not subject to a takings analysis.[5] The U.S. Constitution's Takings Clause was found to apply to an impact fee by the U.S. Supreme Court in Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District.Linkage fees are levied in some states (such as Massachusetts, New Jersey, and California) on nonresidential and market-rate multifamily residential projects, normally upon receipt of the building permit or prior to construction.