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Lake County School Impact Model

In 2005, the Lake County Impact Fee Study Group, consisting of community members from the CAC, school district officials, Lake County officials, and others, created the Lake County Impact Model. The purpose of the School Impact Model is to provide a tool for analyzing the fiscal impact of a new residential development on a school district. The model is available for use by any school district in Lake County as an educational tool for reviewing the potential impacts of new development on school district finances. The model is not intended to be the sole tool in calculating development impact fees; nor is it intended for use in determining which developments should be approved.

Impact Model Resources

Lake County website
School Impact Model (Introduction, Presentation, Model)
Planning, Building, and Zoning Committee

Press and other publications
06/11/05 Tool Developed For Precise Fees (Lakeland Media)
06/27/05 School Impact Fee Model Developed in Lake County (Campaign For Sensible Growth)
06/28/05 Model would assess impact of new homes (Daily Herald)
02/13/06 School Impact Model (News Sun)

Other Resources
July 15th letter presenting the model to school districts.
September 8th press release announcing orientation meeting.

Impact Model Development and Rollout

News Sun Letter-To-The-Editor

On February 27, 2006, a letter-to-the-editor authored by Big Hollow Superintendant Ron Pazanin entitled "School Impact Model" was published in the News Sun.

Lake County Planning, Building & Development Newsletter

The January 2006 newsletter mentions the Impact Model in the "2005 Year In Review".

Campaign For Sensible Growth - 7/27/2005 article

On July 27, 2005, the Campaign For Sensible Growth published an article about the Lake County School Impact Model.

At the request of Big Hollow School District 38 in Ingelside, the Lake County Board appointed a School Impact Model Steering Committee to work with the Lake County Planning, Building and Zoning Committee to create the quantatative model that considers both capital and operational costs......

Big Hollow Superintendent Ron Pazanin was quoted in the local press as saying that "this is not strictly a model that pertains to buildings and classrooms. It also looks at what is actually costs to educate a child".

Lake County School Impact Model - 9/8/2005 update

On September 8, Lake County issued this press release announcing a September 21 meeting. "School districts wishing to utilize the new programs or learn more about their benefits can attend informational meetings about each program on September 21. The first meeting, which will address the School Impact Model, will take place at 9:00 AM. The second meeting, focusing on the School Contribution Collection Mechanism, will be held at 10:15 AM."

Lake County School Impact Model - 7/15/2005 update

On July 15, Philip Rovang, Director of Planning, Building, and Development - Lake County and Roycealee Wood, Regional Superintendent of Schools - Lake County presented a letter to school districts announcing the School Impact Model tools.

Lake County School Impact Model - 7/11/2005 update

On July 11, Lakeland Media published an editorial supporting the impact fee model. Read "Tool Developing For Precise Fees" here.

Lake County School Impact Model - 6/28/2005 update

On June 27, the Lake County Planning, Building, and Zoning Committee met and "enthusiastically endorsed" the model, according to the June 28 article in the Daily Herald. Pending full County Board approval, the plan is to share the new model with all county school districts. The plan is also being discussed with villages within the Big Hollow School District boundaries for use in future annexations of land for residential development.

Lake County School Impact Model - 6/2005 summary

The Lake County Department of Planning is nearing completion of the school impact model. This comprehensive model calculates the financial impact of mass residential development on local school districts that must serve the students coming from these developments. The model also includes an explanatory document that discusses:

1. the operation of the model and its inputs,
2. the general effect of law and court decisions on the limitation of the amount of developer contributions for schools that a Lake County municipality may impose for a development, and
3. a section that explains that such limitations on developer contributions, as in 2. above, do not apply in the case of a mass residential development that arises in the context of an annexation agreement. Many residential developments arise in such a contract law annexation context and, as a result, municipalities are free to negotiate substantially higher developer contributions for school impact than allowed under 2. above.

Lake County representatives will likely present their report to the Planning, Building, and Zoning Committee on June 27 at 8:30am in the County Building.

Lake County School Impact Fee Study Group - 2/2005 summary

In January 2004, residents of the Big Hollow school district organized a meeting to discuss the impact of the Village of Volo's intention to approve the annexation petition of Remington Homes to construct over 400 residential units within the district.

Invited to this meeting were officials of the Big Hollow school district, the Lake County Board representative, officials from Grant Township, members of the Lake County Planning Department, and concerned residents.

The purpose of this meeting was to explore ways to effectively communicate to the Village of Volo that their school impact fee schedules for residential developments were outdated and inadequate.

After examining calculations done by other school districts in similar circumstances, the work of this group was adopted by the Big Hollow Citizens Advisory Committee and formed the basis of presentations made to the Village of Volo in support of substantial increases to their then existing school impact fee schedule. It is of important note that even with a substantial increase in its impact fees, such impact fees will not likely provide more that 20% of the cost of new facilities to support the additional students coming from the Remington Pointe development.

In addition to this result, it was determined that our Lake County Board representative would petition the Lake County Board to support a study of the school impact fee situation when residential developers propose developments that act to cause severe financial distress to host school districts. The Lake County Board agreed that resources would be made available to do such a study and that a steering committee would be formed to guide the study process. The Board felt that the results of such a study would be a valuable resource to the residents, municipalities, and school districts of the county for use in the process of understanding the process and limitations of setting school impact fees in the face of mass residential development.

The steering committee met for the first time in October 2004 and two more times since. The committee is composed of Lake County Board members Bonnie Thomson Carter (District 5) and Steve Mountsier (District 17), 2 representatives from residential development firms, 10 school superintendents/business managers, and 1 at-large citizen member of the Big Hollow Citizens Advisory Committee. Facilitators are members of the Lake County Department of Planning who are engaged in actually producing the study.

The study is aimed at producing a calculation model that identifies all of the various components needed to produce an impact fee amount that would be appropriate for any particular school district or municipality when a residential development is proposed. The study is expected to include definition of all of the relevant calculation components, an explanation of the federal and Illinois law that governs such matters, as well as relevant court decisions.

It was generally agreed that this calculation will yield a cost of impact far in excess of the impact fee that would be allowed under law. The identification of such shortfall would form the basis for explanation to residents for probable school tax increase referenda.

It is expected that the completed school impact fee model will be available sometime in the second quarter of 2005.