393 North Lawence, the future Jefferson County administration building.
The Jefferson County Commission is looking to increase impact fees to help cover some of the costs of the two buildings it plans to purchase later this year.
According to the methodology used by TishlerBise, a consulting firm that specializes in impact fee analysis, The Observer calculates that the county could recover between $5 million to $6 million of the project costs with impact fees over the next 10 years.
Commission Recently Increased Impact Fees
West Virginia allows counties to impose impact fees on new residential and commercial construction to help fund the expansion of county services expected from growth. In January 2025,, the County Commission voted to increase impact fees to support schools, law enforcement, parks and recreation, and emergency services.
The January vote also included an impact fee for administrative facilities to help cover the costs of the 393 North Lawrence Street building that the County Commission plans to purchase later this year. The County plans to relocate the county functions currently located in various locations in downtown Charles Town and in the Health Department building in Bardane to this 93,000 square foot building located a few blocks north of downtown. The County Commission expects to pay $19.1 million to purchase and renovate the Lawrence Street building.
In March 2025, the County Commission announced that it also plans to purchase the 45,000 square foot building at 303 North George Street to house the Circuit, Family, and Magistrate courts for the county. The County reports that it plans to pay $15.95 million to purchase and renovate the George Street building.
The projected costs for both buildings will add up to approximately $35 million.
Counting On Impact Fees
Impact fees can be used only for the portion of a project attributed to new growth in the county. In the case of buildings, that portion is calculated by taking the total square footage of the administrative buildings and dividing it by the population which defines a “level of service.”
The total space in the two new county buildings is 136,600 square feet. To calculate a 10 year projected “level of service” assigned to residential construction, that square foot number is divided by 73,768, the county’s projected 2034 population according to TishlerBise.
For commercial construction, the “level of service” is calculated by dividing the total square feet by 31,708, the 2034 jobs number projected by TishlerBise.
The total impact fee amount is split between residential and commercial construction, with approximately 78% assigned to residential construction and 22% assigned to commercial construction according to the analysis provided by TishlerBise.
The actual amount collected from these impact fees will be determined by the actual growth of residential housing and commercial construction.
