Midlothian is Open for Business

Feb. 1, 2010 - PRLog -- MIDLOTHIAN LOWERS FEES TO JUMP START GROWTHThe City of Midlothian may now be the first community in North Texas to waive its impact fees as a means of jumpstarting its housing market. At its January 12th meeting, the Midlothian City Council approved an ordinance to temporarily suspend its residential impact fee program, giving a green light to lower fees that will last throughout 2010. The program is effective immediately.
Impact fees in Midlothian can range as high as $5,209 per new home, depending on location. The new ordinance will zero out fees for twelve months for platted lots within existing subdivisions. According to City Manager Don Hastings, the City has about 700 such infill lots that would qualify for the program.

“These are obviously difficult times for everyone,” said Council member Bill Houston, who worked alongside a community stakeholder group to formulate the program. “This recession has made the cost margins for homebuilding razor-thin. The temporary suspension of impact fees will give home builders some needed breathing room. That will hopefully result in more new homes being built here rather than somewhere else in the region.”

Impact fees are used by many but not all Texas communities to ensure that certain costs of growth are borne by future residents who can ‘opt in’ to the fees through their home purchase, rather than saddling existing taxpayers with the inevitable costs of growth. By State law, impact fee revenue can only be used to pay for capital improvements needed by new growth, such as water, sewer and roadway facilities.

When they were adopted in 2003, Midlothian’s impact fees were among the highest in the DFW region, with only Flower Mound and certain Lewisville fees being higher. Since then, many North Texas cities have caught up, making Midlothian’s current fees fairly average for the region. Prior to the current recession, Midlothian added as many as 425 homes per year. That peak fell to only 108 new homes in 2009.

Council member Steve Massey, who helped spearhead the program along with Mr. Houston, feels that incentivizing growth during a severe recession only makes good business sense. “Every businessman faces a time when you need to draw on your savings to promote your business, to discount your prices, to make yourself more attractive to the market. What we’re doing here is not a whole lot different.”

Hastings said the issue of waiving impact fees was a difficult one. “Our Council members know how important impact fees are to good growth management. But they also realize that a certain amount of quality growth is healthy and desirable. This incentive, along with streamlining improvements we’re making, should make Midlothian more competitive in attracting quality housing growth”

Mayor Boyce Whatley said that the City will spend considerable effort to monitor the program’s success, using metrics based on market share and seasonally-adjusted historical building rates. “Obviously no one has a crystal ball, but we’re hoping to see a nice bump in our housing starts that will ripple out into our broader economy.”

More information about Midlothian’s impact fee incentives is available on the City’s website or by calling City Hall at 972-775-7195.