Short Title; Legislative Findings and Intent

1. Law
2. Georgia Code
3. Local Government
4. Development Impact Fees
5. Short Title; Legislative Findings and Intent

1. This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the "Georgia Development Impact Fee Act."
2. The General Assembly finds that an equitable program for planning and financing public facilities needed to serve new growth and development is necessary in order to promote and accommodate orderly growth and development and to protect the public health, safety, and general welfare of the citizens of the State of Georgia.It is the intent of this chapter to:
   1. Ensure that adequate public facilities are available to serve new growth and development;
   2. Promote orderly growth and development by establishing uniform standards by which municipalities and counties may require that new growth and development pay a proportionate share of the cost of new public facilities needed to serve new growth and development;
   3. Establish minimum standards for the adoption of development impact fee ordinances by municipalities and counties; and
   4. Ensure that new growth and development is required to pay no more than its proportionate share of the cost of public facilities needed to serve new growth and development and to prevent duplicate and ad hoc development exactions.

(Code 1981, §36-71-1, enacted by Ga. L. 1990, p. 692, § 1.)

Law reviews.

- For survey article on local government law for the period from June 1, 2002 to May 31, 2003, see 55 Mercer L. Rev. 353 (2003). For survey article on real property law for the period from June 1, 2002 to May 31, 2003, see 55 Mercer L. Rev. 397 (2003). For annual survey of Administrative Law, see 57 Mercer L. Rev. 1 (2005) and 58 Mercer L. Rev. 1 (2006). For annual survey of local government law, see 57 Mercer L. Rev. 289 (2005) and 58 Mercer L. Rev. 267 (2006). For survey article on local government law, see 60 Mercer L. Rev. 263 (2008).

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Legislative intent.

- Intent of the Georgia Development Impact Fee Act, O.C.G.A. § 36-71-1 et seq., was to promote orderly growth and development by establishing uniform standards by which municipalities and counties could require that new growth and development pay a proportionate share, but no more than its proportionate share, of the cost of new facilities needed to serve new growth and development. City of Griffin v. McDaniel, 270 Ga. App. 349, 606 S.E.2d 607 (2004).

County ordinance imposing impact fees on new developments only in unincorporated areas.

- Because Cherokee County, Georgia lacked the power to impose impact fees on new development in incorporated areas of Cherokee County, the county acted rationally and reasonably by imposing impact fees on new developments only in unincorporated areas. Cherokee County v. Greater Atlanta Homebuilders Ass'n, 255 Ga. App. 764, 565 S.E.2d 925 (2002).

Applicability.

- Georgia Department of Community Affairs has properly interpreted the second and third sentences of O.C.G.A. § 36-71-13(c) to apply only to "governmental entities," as that term is defined by the Georgia Development Impact Fee Act, O.C.G.A. § 36-71-1 et seq. City of Griffin v. McDaniel, 270 Ga. App. 349, 606 S.E.2d 607 (2004).

Cited in Effingham County v. Roach, 329 Ga. App. 805, 764 S.E.2d 600 (2014), overruled on other grounds, Rivera v. Washington, 2016 Ga. LEXIS 248 (Ga. 2016).

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