Aurora Mayor David Stover said the city will not expand the use of a special tax for new southeast side schools and instead will collect school impact fees on new homes.
The fees, which the city hopes to enact within 60 days, would be charged to developers for each home built in newly annexed areas. The revenue would be passed on to the city’s six school districts to construct schools for students generated by the new homes.
In the end, the fees will increase the cost of new homes in areas annexed after the fees are enacted.
Stover said higher home prices are a better alternative than the special tax, which has been harshly criticized by residents.
“We feel the better approach is to initiate a school impact fee that affects all of the areas that want to be annexed to Aurora,” he said.
He called the citizen reaction to the special tax “extremely negative, primarily because they weren’t informed when they bought the house.”
At a meeting in May, far southeast side homeowners vented their frustration at higher-than-expected property taxes during a meeting with developers and officials from the city and Oswego Community School District 308.
Some residents said companies that built their homes underestimated the overall property tax burden and did not mention the special tax.
Officials from Hoffman Estates-based Lakewood Homes Inc., however, later said that the property taxes on the homes they built in the area came in at rates predicted by their company, which took the brunt of the complaints at the meeting. Lakewood officials also noted the special tax was disclosed at closing, as mandated by the city.
The special tax, enacted in 1995 under the administration of former Mayor David Pierce, was capped at $1 for every $100 of assessed valuation, or about $500 on a home with a fair market value of $150,000. Now at the maximum $1, the tax is expected to drop to 50 cents next year.
The tax was designed to pay for new District 308 schools and the initial costs of operating a new fire station in the area, which has opened and now is funded strictly through regular property taxes.
Two new elementary schools will be opened in Aurora by 2002 because of the tax, levied in what’s known as a special service area, and a financing plan devised by Stover’s administration.
“I was a little surprised (at Stover’s decision),” said Ald. Chris Beykirch (8th), who represents the area and supported the special tax.
“I didn’t think the special tax was a complete failure,” he said, noting that it ensured new District 308 schools were built in Aurora. Building such additional schools may not have been possible if impact fees were enacted.
Stover, noting that “one way or the other, you have to deal with the problem” of building new schools, said he believed paying impact fees up-front, instead of imposing a special tax on homes over many years, may be less expensive for homeowners.
Stover made the announcement as the City Council approved annexation of 180 acres at the southwest corner of Eola Road and 95th Street.
Ryland Homes of Schaumburg, which has agreed to pay the impact fees, also won approval for a plan to build 382 single-family homes and 139 town homes on the land.
The mayor has established a committee to look at devising impact fees that would be similar to those North Aurora approved in July for new development in West Aurora School District 129, which also serves students in Aurora and Montgomery.
Those fees decline as the price of a home increases, based on the premise that owners of more expensive homes pay higher property taxes to the local school district.
The fees increase if the home has more bedrooms, which would mean it is likely to bring more students into the district.
