MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — How will Berkeley County Proposed Impact Fees Impact the City of Martinsburg? The Berkeley County Council recently adopted a plan to institute impact fees on new development. The fee would tack on $5,500 on each new single family home developed in the county, with smaller amounts assessed to new multi-family or mobile home units. There was some question about whether any of those impact fees would transfer to services the county and the city of Martinsburg have as mutual interests.

Martinsburg Mayor Kevin Knowles says the city was not part of the original conversation but are now being looped in:

“Martinsburg is part of the county but they’re not part of us,” he said.  “Those conversations —  at first there was no conversation because we were  all under the under the idea that the city was not going to be included so we weren’t part of any of the discussions or conversations on how the money would be split up.  Since then over the last couple of weeks, it’s been brought to their attention legally, that their legal counsel is giving them direction that the city needs to be included.”

City Manager Andy Blake said the city and the county do not share all of the services covered under the impact fee idea, but there are some:

” We’re just now kind of digging into the details of this matter,” Blake said.  “We stayed out of the whole process because we were under the impression that it wasn’t going to apply.”
“It’s my understanding that they have five fees that they’re looking at and the fire and law enforcement would not apply within the city.  But the schools impact fee, the parks impact fee and their administrative/court fee would apply within the  city.  We’re still trying to figure out the details of that what the impact would be to us.”

According to the county’s ordinance, a single family newly developed home would bring in impact fees divided among the five service areas:

Public School Facilities would receive $1,095
Administrative Services would receive $1,012
Fire and Rescue Services would receive $1,300
Law Enforcement Facilities and Services would receive $372
Parks and Recreation would receive $1,721

During Thursday’s appearance on Panhandle Live, City Manager Blake talked about the fourth Community All-Star Award in a row from the West Virginia Municipal League
(This year’s award is in recognition of refinancing and restructuring police and fire pensions ensuring that our first responders pensions are stable, fully funded and reinforcing City’s long term commitment to our first responders.)

“The pension financing/restructuring is a really wonky, detailed not exciting topic,” Blake says, but calls it “probably one of the more important structural changes that the city has made in a very very long time that will shore up our existing first responders pensions, move new fire and police officers who are hired after July 1st 2024 and to the state pension system which is well funded and over the course of 40 years will save the city approximately, according to actuarial studies, about $160 million.”

The mayor gave an update on funding for the Greenway Trail Project now that the city has been assured the $20.8 million RAISE grant for the Martinsburg Greenway Trail Project will indeed be coming.

The trail expansion will create 6.2 miles of dedicated multi-use trails along Tuscarora Creek, connecting to the WV Route 9 regional bicycle trail:

“We had a RAISE grant  kickoff meeting I believe about two weeks ago  and things are starting to move forward in in the most   positive direction,” according to Mayor Knowles. 

City Manager Blake talked about how to avoid being scammed by fraudsters impersonating the city who ask for payment.  It’s a problem that has been plaguing several municipalities around the Eastern Panhandle this summer.  

“We got another batch of those this week,” he says.  “Those have been turned over to the police departments of  Martinsburg,  Charles Town, Ranson.”
“I think there’s a joint task force effort  to try to find that folks who are doing that.”
“If you have any questions about whether the invoice is legit or not all you have to do is call we’ll confirm whether or not you owe or not,” Blake says. “Usually in our process we make you pay up front when you apply so you usually would not get an invoice after the fact anyway.”

The Impact Fee ordinance was signed into county ordinance by the Berkeley County Commission July 24th citing the following:

New development creates an immediate increase in demand for public services and
facilities, but increased tax revenues from that development are not generated until years
later. As a result, the Berkeley County Commission, the Berkeley County Board of
Education, and other local governing bodies are forced to rely on existing taxpayers and
debt financing to provide the additional services and facilities that new development
requires. Impact fees alleviate the undue reliance on current taxpayers and debt financing
to fund additional capital improvements and services.

The Berkeley County Commission provided the following chart to illustrate how fees will be allocated, noting, “See summary table of impact fee ordinance by type and location. The service area for two of the fees excludes the City of Martinsburg. Also, the fees will be less for new homes valued at below the average home price. but generally the fees are:

Read more about the impact fees and the breakdown of how the fees will be allocated among the services in the county here.

More on the Greenway Trail project can be found here.

 

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