A second group tied to the Savannah-area real estate industry has weighed in on Bryan County’s interim development ordinance and transportation impact fees for South Bryan.
The Savannah Area Board of Realtors sent out a press release Wednesday morning in which it criticized both measures, saying they will drive up the cost of homes in South Bryan.
Bryan County officials had no comment Wednesday, but the county is being sued over the same issue by the Home Builders Association of Greater Savannah and a hearing on that suit is set for May 10 in Pembroke.
Earlier, attorneys for the home builders group asked Atlantic Judicial Circuit Judge Robert Russell for a restraining order to halt the county’s impact fees, which took effect April 1 and average about $3,000 per home, but he refused.
The SABR release said the impact fees and design requirements included in the development ordinance are costing home builders and home buyers in South Bryan.
In a statement it attributed to its directors, the release said, “We strongly support classes of people protected from housing discrimination by the federal, state, and local government. We believe aesthetic design is best decided by the free market, consumers, and the development community. We oppose counterproductive taxation, governmental guidelines, regulations, rules, and procedures, which unnecessarily increase consumer costs and unnecessarily burden the business community.”
“Acknowledging that home ownership is a primary goal of American families. We also believe that every individual should have the opportunity to live in safe and decent housing. These objectives can best be served by a healthy housing market in an economic environment that fosters an ample supply of affordable and accessible housing with the least amount of government interference.”
Here is the group's press release in full:
Ruling Raises Home Prices In Certain Portions of the Bryan County
The Bryan County Commission, at its November, 2018 meeting, proposed new and more stringent building standards that would be unequally applied to certain areas of the county. The building requirements would increase the cost of a home significantly. Along with new “impact fees” that would also be added, buying a home in south Bryan county would become more difficult.
The new building requirements have been called “temporary”, but in the mean time home builders and home buyers would have to live by and pay for the new regulations. The state of Georgia general assembly has a bill in process to prohibit local governments from passing and enforcing this type of regulatory action. The bill did not make it to a vote in the most recent session.
The board of directors of the Savannah Area Realtors has issued a statement that outlines a number of reasons to reject these new cost-increasing ordinances and fees. Essentially, the board states that the Savannah Area Realtors “oppose any efforts by local governments to collect fees in excess of the impact and to use the collected fees for operational or unrelated expenses.”
The official statement prepared by the board of the Savannah Area Realtors states its objection and objectives clearly:
“We strongly support classes of people protected from housing discrimination by the federal, state, and local government. We believe aesthetic design is best decided by the free market, consumers, and the development community. We oppose counterproductive taxation, governmental guidelines, regulations, rules, and procedures, which unnecessarily increase consumer costs and unnecessarily burden the business community.”
“Acknowledging that home ownership is a primary goal of American families”, the board continued, “We also believe that every individual should have the opportunity to live in safe and decent housing. These objectives can best be served by a healthy housing market in an economic environment that fosters an ample supply of affordable and accessible housing with the least amount of government interference.”
The overall purpose of the Savannah Area Realtors is to promote home ownership, because it contributes to stability, family security, and well-being. They state that these new ordinances and fees would make it more difficult for people to realize the American dream of home ownership and would prevent communities from receiving the inherent benefits.