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ZEBULON - On December 12, 2025, a Petition for Review was filed in Pike County Superior Court by J. David Hughes against Pike County in reference to the impact fee amount of $6,775.99 that he was charged in September of 2025 when building his home.

Hughes sent a letter to the Pike County Commissioners appealing the amount of the impact fee in October of 2025, but his request for an appeal and the refund of the overage was denied.

This Petition is a request for a jury trial, a request for a review by the Court with a judgement that would reverse the county’s denial of Hughes’ appeal and a request for reasonable costs and attorney’s fees along with any other relief that the Court decides to give based on the 601 page Petition for Review and accompanying documentation that has been presented.

Both the October letter of appeal and the current Petition for Review were filed by Attorney Troy R. Covington of Bloom Parham. This is the same law firm that contested Henry County Impact Fees and won in Henry County Superior Court in 2025.

There is an update from 1.12.26 at the bottom of the article in bold regarding the County's Response to this Petition for Review.

The article from October 14, 2025 entitled “BREAKING NEWS: Pike County Government Put on Notice Regarding Impact Fees” can be read by clicking here: pikecountytimes.com/secondary/BREAKINGNEWSimpactfeeletter10.14.25.html.

History

On September 8, 2025, Hughes gave the county a notice of payment under protest when he paid the impact fee amount of $6,775.99. The note simply said, “I am paying this Impact Fee under Protest since I believe it to be illegal.”

The Pike County Commission was then put on notice regarding these impact fees on October 8, 2025 when Hughes sent a letter requesting a refund of $4,371.84 which is the difference between the original impact fee of $2,404.15 and the impact fee amount of $6,775.99 that has been charged on single family detached housing since February 1, 2023.

The county enacted the original Development Impact Fee Ordinance on May 10, 2006 and passed an amended ordinance on May 9, 2012. The original amount of the impact fee for a single family detached home was $2,404.15.

Impact Fees were designed to help new development share the cost of public services that will be needed to serve new growth and development. Impact fees must be encumbered or used in construction within six years of the date of collection. (§ 157.09 Pike County Ordinances) Impact fees are currently being collected for the library, fire department, Sheriff’s Office, detention facilities, 911, Parks and Recreation, and roads.

On January 31, 2023, the Pike County Board of Commissioners voted to approve a change in the amount charged for impact fees on single family detached housing from $2,404.15 to $6,775.99 with the change going into effect on February 1, 2023. No other categories including commercial or industrial were changed from the original amounts.

Petition for Review Allegations

This Petition presented hundreds of pages of evidence to back up this allegation: “The impact fees being charged by the County according to its Board of Commissioners’ January 31, 2023 vote are invalid and illegal under Georgia law.” Several reasons were presented to back up this allegation.

Pike County’s Development Impact Fee Ordinance § 157.11(A)(1) states that any amendments to the ordinance – including an amendment to the impact fee schedule -- “shall follow the procedures for adoption of an ordinance imposing a development impact fee as set out and required under the Georgia Development Impact Fee Act.” (O.C.G.A. § 36-71-1).

The Georgia Development Impact Fee Act (DIFA) says that any ordinance imposing development impact fees must be enacted according to the provisions in O.C.G.A. § 36-71-3(a). That includes a state requirement for the county to nominate and put together a Development Impact Fee Advisory Committee composed of between 5 and 10 members with at least 50 percent of the members being from the development, building, or real estate industries according to O.C.G.A. § 36-71-5(a) and for the county to hold two public hearings about the proposed ordinance with the second being held at least two weeks after the first hearing according to O.C.G.A. § 36-71-6.

Pike County followed these requirements when impact fees were first implemented, but the County did not follow either of these state requirements prior to increasing the amount that would be charged to those building single family detached homes from $2,404.15 to $6,775.99, which more than 2 ½ times the amount that the county was charging, prior to February 1, 2023.

State law does not allow impact fees to be spent on anything other than the categories for which the impact fees were collected, and the impact fees have to be based on reasonable estimates for future development. O.C.G.A. §§ 36-71-4(m), 36-71-8(b).

The complaint stated that the December 14, 2022 and January 31, 2023 minutes show that the Board relied on a recommendation from Paragon Consulting that was given to the County around March of 2021. According to the complaint, handwriting and calculations in the margins of the original Impact Fee Methodology Report were used to make the change in impact fees for single family detached housing which likely caused new growth and development to pay more than its share in the cost of improving public facilities to serve new growth and development.

The complaint then stated that even if the Paragon calculations were correct in March of 2021, the changes were not made until two years later in January of 2023 which might not have been correct at that time.

Petition for Appeal Filed in October of 2025

On October 8, 2025, Hughes filed a written letter to the Pike County Board of Commissioners asking for an appeal process in which he could receive a refund of $4,371,84 which is the amount over $2,404.15 that was paid to the County for his impact fee. He also recommended that the County repay everyone who has paid this extra amount for impact fees since February 1, 2023.

Through his attorney, Hughes advised that the county’s failure to follow its own policy and that of the State of Georgia meant that the County must stop charging the new impact fee and go back to the original amount of $2,404.15 until the current process to make changes to the County’s impact fee ordinance are completed.

The county did not hold an appeal hearing on this complaint. Instead, commissioners heard and denied the request for reimbursement in an open meeting on November 12, 2025.

The minutes for this meeting state that County Manager Rob Morton advised the Pike County Board of Commissioners that the request for a refund of the impact fee did not meet the criteria for a refund according to Ordinance § 157.09. He recommended denial of the claim, and the Board of Commissioners followed his recommendation.

Since commissioners did not specifically address the request for an administrative appeal of the impact fee and have not advised Hughes that there will be appeal process at any point in the future, the complaint advised the Court that the appeal has been denied with the current complaint being brought to the Court within 30 days of the denial as is required in Pike County’s ordinances.

Petition for Review by Pike Superior Court

Hughes asked the Court to declare the denial of this appeal as “…illegal, invalid, and without force and effect and order the County to refund to Petitioner $4,371.84 for the residential impact fee that he paid for the Property on September 8, 2025.”

The complaint requested attorney’s fees and expenses of litigation based on the County’s actions prior to his request for an appeal and refund of the 2023 amount of impact fees based on the County’s previous actions.

A September 25, 2023 letter signed by a group of concerned stakeholders in Pike County brought the problems with the change in the ordinance to the attention of the commissioners. The County advised that it had taken the steps necessary to make the ordinance change through a letter written by County Attorney Rob Morton exactly one year to the date from the enaction of the January 31, 2023 change on January 31, 2024.

The complaint went on to state that the County realizes that its actions on January 31, 2023 changing the amount of impact fees on single family detached housing were improper because it is now in the process of rewriting the impact fee ordinance.  

Closing

The complaint closes out with a request for a jury trial, a request for a review by the Court with a judgement that would reverse the county’s denial of Hughes’ appeal and a request for reasonable costs and attorney’s fees along with any other relief that the Court decides to give based on the County’s conduct which shows “…bad faith, vexatiousness, and stubborn litigiousness, and was carried out with such conscious and reckless disregard" of Hughes' rights under O.C.G.A. § 13-6-11.”

Pike County Times will continue to follow this situation as it goes through the court system.

ADDED 1.12.25 AT 8 P.M. - Pike County Times followed up with the County and requested the County's response to this Petition. County Attorney/Manager Rob Morton advised by email that the opposing council, Troy Covington, has agreed to an extension to file the County’s response until February 16, 2026. Pike County Times will follow up with the County at that time to obtain the response and follow up on this matter.

Click here to read from the (first) October 24, 2025 meeting of the Impact Fee Committee: pikecountytimes.com/secondary/impactfeeworkshop10.24.25.html.

Click here to read from the (second and third) November 5, 2025 and November 19, 2025 meetings of the Impact Fee Committee: pikecountytimes.com/secondary/impactfeecommittee11.19.25.html. [Note from the Editor: The November 19, 2025 Impact Fee Committee meeting was attended by Bill Ross of Ross and Associates, who is undergoing the current Impact Fee process for Pike County, and Ross answered the question of whether the county can set percentages for commercial and industrial at a different rate than residential. He said no and stated that Newton County ended up in court of that. The Committee asked County Attorney/Manager Rob Morton to research whether the County can have different percentages for commercial and industrial than residential in this meeting.]

The original article entitled, “BREAKING NEWS: Pike County Government Put on Notice Regarding Impact Fees” can be read by clicking here: pikecountytimes.com/secondary/BREAKINGNEWSimpactfeeletter10.14.25.html.

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