Newtown supervisors refuse to reduce township permit, inspection fees for $52.9-million Council Rock middle school project

NEWTOWN TOWNSHIP >> The board of supervisors has formally refused to give the Council Rock School District a 35-percent discount in permit and inspection fees for the planned $52.9-million construction of the new Newtown Middle School.

The issue was discussed in executive session before the April 27 meeting.

Then during the public meeting, Chairman Kyle Davis offered a motion to grant the reduced fees for constructing the new building which will be on the site of the current school on Richboro Road right off the Newtown Bypass.

However, it failed to be seconded by Supervisors Mike Gallagher, Jennifer Dix or Phil Calabro who also attended the meeting. Vice Chairman Ryan Gallagher was absent.

As a result, the motion died without the board taking a vote on the matter or discussing it any further.

After the meeting, Gallagher, who has opposed reducing such fees for school district projects in general, told BucksLocalNews.com that the overall declining revenues that the township is getting from these development fees was a factor in board’s decision not to grant the discount in this case.

He added that fee collections have dropped since the township first approved giving Council Rock a break on the permit and inspection fees for the recent Goodnoe Elementary School renovation project on Frost Lane.

“We have to reevaluate what the effect of [Goodnoe] was,” Gallagher explained.

Meanwhile, Supervisor Dix said that she “had second thoughts” whether to vote for the reduced fees, and might have considered it if the discount was for a lesser amount then 35 percent.

Chairman Davis indicated that the issue is not completely dead and could resurface at a later time.

At the April 13 supervisors’ meeting, township manager Kurt Ferguson had recommended that the board give the school district a discount, and charge only 65-percent of what the township would normally bill a developer.

According to Ferguson, at that rate the township would break even on its administrative costs.

He had explained that, if granted, Council Rock would pay $183,797 in fees for the Newtown Middle School, not the estimated $282,265 that would usually be charged for a project of that scope.

In addition, the township manager had stated that amount would also cover any ongoing inspections that would be required of the site, as was the case with the Goodnoe school renovation.

Goodnoe Elementary had received the same 65-percent rate that was being recommended for the Newtown Middle School.

After briefly discussing the issue at that time, the supervisors had said that they would take the matter under advisement to be decided at a later meeting.

Several supervisors had reasoned that charging a taxing authority, such as a school district, the full amount for permit and inspection fees would only mean that the cost would eventually be passed on to township taxpayers.

In calculating permit and inspection fees, township officials usually take the cost and size of the project into account.

For Goodnoe Elementary, the township’s fees were reduced from roughly $139,000 to $88,000.

But Newtown Middle School is a much more costly project, and generates higher fees for the township.

Council Rock recently awarded more than $46.2 million dollars in constructions bids for the roughly 157,000 square-foot structure which will be built on the 35-acre site where the current middle school is located.

Work on the project is scheduled to begin in May with the new building constructed while the current school is still in use.

After the new school is completed, the old building then would be demolished.

Classes for the new building are scheduled start at the beginning of the 2018-2019 school year.

Newtown Middle School was opened 1954 and once served as the district’s high school before Council Rock North was built.

The project is part of a $100-million capital improvement plan which also calls for spending about $47.9 million to renovate Holland Middle School in Northampton Township, which includes a 45,000 square-foot addition to the existing 140,000 square-foot structure.

Source: Bucks Local News