Recently, the Cabarrus County Commissioners decided to increase, not just increase but DOUBLE, developers fees for each lot to $8,000.   I can remember back in 2003 when they debated the first such fee under the "adequate public facilities ordinance" requiring these fees among other things from developers to help finance the population growth they were bringing in to the county.  The instituted a $1,008 fee in 2004.  Then raised it to $4,034 in 2004, and now it's $8000 in 2007.  This is like opening Pandora's Box.  Giving our commissioners the ability to raise these fees without a state approval has shown our local government's total disregard for first time or lower priced buyers.  With this type of fee attached to every lot, builders will not be able to afford to build starter homes and keep the total home price affordable.   This year it was announced that Concord Mills Shopping Center is the number one tourist attraction in North Carolina.  We were promised that the extra sales tax revenues would be a boone to our local economy, and local property taxes would not have to be raised.  The commercial growth in the Speedway Blvd, Concord Mills, and I-85 corrider areas is tremendous.  Why isn't this bringing in revenue to support our schools?  Commercial growth does not add students like residential growth.  The balance of the two is essential to avoid raising taxes and values on homes.  Yes, we have new subdivisions breaking ground every day and are having to complete a new school every year to just keep pace, not to mention the roads, sewer, water, and other infrastructure it takes for growth.  All the new shopping centers, the BioTech Center, the hotels, the restaurants, and subsequent support industries don't directly add students, but their employees' families do.  These folks need homes.  A good many need entry level homes or at least the lower third of the market price range homes.  These are the people who can least afford an $8000 price increase on their new home because the builder WILL pass it on.  The builders are, of course, in business to make money.  They can't just absorb that substantial of a fee, especially with the price of materials going up so rapidly.   There are so many factors that play into the whole picture, but a doubling of a fee to a punitive amount that negatively affects such a small part, a fairly powerless part, of our economy is short sighted on the part of our county commissioners.  Someone buying a million dollar home can absorb this fee, but the $120,000 homebuyer just cut the size of their home by as much as 100 square feet, that's a 10 x 10 bedroom.  Is that fair?  It doesn't feel fair to me.   Our commissioners have made a big mistake in raising this transfer tax.    Well anyway, thanks for letting me rant.  This tax, and it is a very selective tax, really ticks me off.

P.S.  If you live in a NC County that is looking to pass an adequate facilities ordinance that will allow transfer taxes, watch out.  Look at the increases in a short period of time we have experienced.  Fight it.