Lone Pine Farms, a D.R. Horton project pictured on Wednesday, is just one of several residential subdivisions under construction in Greenwood. City officials are floating the idea of implementing a road impact fee for developers, asking the city council for funds to commission a study.
Noah Crenshaw | Daily Journal
Greenwood officials are considering a new way to collect money for road improvements.
An additional appropriation before the Greenwood City Council would allocate $187,200 for the cost of the road impact fee study. If a road impact fee were implemented, developers would pay into a fund to offset their development’s stresses on roads in the area of the project, said Greg Wright, city controller.
The study’s cost would be eligible for reimbursement from future road impact fees if the city council were to adopt a fee after the study is completed, Wright said. Money collected from the fee may only be used on agreed-upon projects and may only be used on projects in the impact zone, according to Indiana law.
Developers of all types — whether housing, commercial or industrial — would pay the fee, Wright said.
Greenwood has grown exponentially over the last two decades. This year alone, at least four subdivisions — a total of 914 single-family homes — are set to begin construction. This is on top of three subdivisions with 563 homes and two apartment complexes with 634 units already under constriction, city planning staff said earlier this year.
This growth doesn’t include commercial or industrial developments.
An impact fee for developers is not unheard of in Greenwood, Wright said. The city has charged a park impact fee for individuals and developers seeking home permits since at least 2003 and a fee for people and developers to tap into the city’s sewer system since around 1996-97, according to archive reports in the Daily Journal.
“It’s similar to what we do, whether for the sewers or whether for the parks,” Wright said. “As you do new developments, it’s going to cause additional needs — more roads — so this would help to pay for those needs by having developers pay per lot.”
The road impact fee, if it is ultimately passed, would also not be the first for Johnson County.
County officials established a road impact fee in 2021 for developments in the Interstate 69 corridor. The impact zone stretches from Bargersville’s southern point to County Line Road, along State Road 37. It includes all of Bargersville and portions of White River Township, between State Road 37 and State Road 135, as well as other county roads that will lead to I-69, including Stones Crossing, Morgantown, Mullinix and Olive Branch roads. Proceeds from the fee are shared between the county and the town of Bargersville and when enough money is collected, agreed-upon projects will be completed with the funds.
The appropriation for the study is included in an ordinance where council members are also considering using federal relief funds to pay for parts of upcoming road projects. A public hearing on the ordinance is set for July 1, with a final vote likely on July 15.
