Growth

Impact fees exist so that new construction pays for the roads it needs. The county charges builders a little over half of what its own studies say those roads cost, and the rest of the bill gets handed to the people who already live here. That's been the arrangement for more than a decade. It's the reason we're short on roads and the reason there's always a new fee or tax being floated to catch up.

So I'd collect the full fee. And I'd loosen the zoning, because right now the code dictates what you're allowed to build on land you already own, down to what's allowed to sit next to what. If somebody wants to put a shop under the apartments they own, or open a business on the corner of their own street, the county shouldn't be the reason they can't.

That's how towns used to fill in. A little at a time, homes and shops and workplaces mixed together, without anyone drawing it up in advance. It's not a new idea and it isn't a radical one. It's just what happens when people are free to build. And when people can live near where they work, businesses come to them, which is a lot cheaper than paying a corporation to move here.

None of that means bulldozing what we have. Keep the country clubs, keep the gated communities. But the towns that exist mostly to commute out of should be allowed to become real places.