McMimpact Fee Proposed

Newly built "teardown" homes would be subject to a new tax in Montgomery County, Maryland, under a bill proposed this week, reports Ally Schweitzer.

Montgomery County Councilmember Evan Glass introduced a bill that would "impose new fees on builders who demolish older single-family homes and replace them with new, often much larger ones," according to Schweitzer. "The fees would help fund school construction and affordable housing in a jurisdiction that sorely needs both, Glass says."

Teardowns and McMansions are popular in Montgomery County. The county has issued 2,000 demolition permits for single-family homes since 2010. Glass believes tearing down existing single-family homes and transforming them into larger, more expensive single-family homes is driving some of the region's lack of housing affordability, according to the article.

Opponents say the impact fee say will slow economic growth and that teardowns are already paying their fair share of taxes.