Pooler is close to charging every new home a one-time fee for the parks, police, fire, and street capacity its growth requires. Under the draft ordinance the city posted on October 5, 2026, the charge runs from $2,173 for a home of 1,000 square feet or less up to $8,394 for one of 5,501 square feet or more. It is due when the building permit is issued. City staff said in September that the ordinance would come to council for first reading on October 5 and final adoption on October 19. As of this writing, the city's ordinance page still lists the draft as proposed, which means council hasn't approved it yet.
If you're comparing a new build in Pooler with a resale or with a new home across the county line, this fee matters even though no buyer will ever write a check for it. Two rules decide where its cost ends up. One is a grandfathering clause that ties the fee to the date a permit was issued. The other is a body of research showing that impact fees tend to show up in the prices of existing homes too.
The permit date splits identical houses
The draft ordinance exempts any home on a platted and recorded lot that already has a valid building permit before the effective date. The exemption holds as long as construction has started and keeps moving under the permit's terms. The city counts construction as started on the date of the first required inspection. If the permit lapses, or a builder needs an extension or a reissued permit, the fee applies.
In practice, that means two houses with the same floor plan in the same Pooler subdivision, finished the same season, could carry different city costs. The only difference would be which side of the effective date their permits fell on. A 2,300-square-foot plan permitted before the cutoff owes nothing under this ordinance. The same plan permitted after it owes $5,054.
Here is how the proposed residential schedule breaks down by size. These are the draft's maximum allowable amounts.
| Home size, sq ft | Parks | Police | Fire | Streets | Total per home |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 or less | $531 | $172 | $639 | $832 | $2,173 |
| 1,501 to 2,000 | $1,061 | $343 | $1,277 | $1,473 | $4,155 |
| 2,001 to 2,500 | $1,304 | $421 | $1,569 | $1,760 | $5,054 |
| 2,501 to 3,000 | $1,494 | $483 | $1,798 | $1,990 | $5,764 |
| 3,001 to 3,500 | $1,657 | $536 | $1,995 | $2,182 | $6,370 |
| 5,501 or more | $2,201 | $712 | $2,649 | $2,832 | $8,394 |
Square footage gets checked twice. A builder certifies the planned square footage up front. Before the city issues a certificate of occupancy, an architect has to certify the actual square footage. If the finished house moves into a higher tier, the builder pays the difference at the schedule in effect on that date. On a new build with a bonus room or an extended footprint added mid-construction, the city's charge can move along with the plan.
One more detail sits deep in the definitions. The draft says the right to any future refund belongs to whoever paid the fee, and that it does "not run with the land" unless it is expressly transferred. Refunds of 97% are possible if the city doesn't encumber the money or start construction within six years. Under the draft, that refund right stays with the builder who paid the fee, not with the family who later buys the house.
Who absorbs a fee charged to the builder
The ordinance names the builder as the payer. The economics are less tidy. The best-known study on this question looked at Dade County, Florida. Economists Keith Ihlanfeldt and Timothy Shaughnessy found that an additional $1.00 of fees raised the price of both new and existing housing by about $1.60 and lowered the price of land by about $1.00. Their paper describes the result as consistent with the "new view" of impact fees. In that view, the fee works as a payment for infrastructure that buyers value, so it shows up in prices across the market and not just on the new house.
That study covers one Florida county in an earlier period, and it doesn't predict what Pooler's fee will do. It does explain why a Pooler homeowner who never builds anything has a stake in this vote. If new construction gets more expensive, the existing homes it competes with can gain room to rise as well. The study also points to a second party that bears the cost: whoever owns the undeveloped land, because the price of raw acreage absorbed part of the fee.
Timing makes this harder to sort out. Across Chatham, Bryan, and Effingham counties, the Savannah Area REALTORS dashboard for August 2026 showed inventory up 15.8%, days on market up 27.1%, and closed sales down 14.1%, while the median sales price rose 1.1%. Those are regional figures, not Pooler-only numbers. They describe a market where buyers have more time and more choices. A builder adding a new fee in that market has less room to raise list prices and more reason to absorb part of the cost, push it back onto land prices, or schedule permits before the cutoff.
What the money is supposed to buy
The fee schedule comes from an impact fee study by consultant Tischler-Bise. Over the next ten years, the study projects growth-related needs of about $12.9 million for fire, including roughly 9,926 square feet of new station space and about seven vehicles. It projects $11.5 million for parks, including 12,088 square feet of recreation facilities, and $4.1 million for police, including 6,866 square feet of new facilities. Pooler also has $117.8 million in road projects planned over ten years, and the Savannah Morning News reported that impact fees would cover about $65 million of it.
The money has limits on how it can be spent. Under the draft, fees can only pay for projects listed in the city's adopted Capital Improvements Element, can't pay for routine maintenance, and have to be spent in the order they were collected within six years. Council unanimously adopted that Capital Improvements Element as Resolution R2026-09a, and the Georgia Department of Community Affairs approved it.
The road share explains why the fee and the city's development fights are connected. On September 21, council voted 4-2 to postpone a rezoning decision on The District, a proposed 116-acre mixed-use project near Pooler Parkway and Pine Barren Road. The plan calls for up to 1,060 residential units, 440 hotel rooms, and a grocery store of roughly 100,000 square feet. Staff and the planning and zoning commission had recommended denial because of congestion concerns on Pine Barren Road, Pooler Parkway, Galloway Drive, and Memorial Drive. The city is paying for Kimley-Horn to independently review the developer's revised traffic study. Without a fee schedule, the cost of the road capacity a project like that needs falls mostly on the city's general budget.
The city has looked at this before. Mayor Pro Tem Aaron Henry referred to an impact fee study done in 2007 when he backed moving forward this time. "The first best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago," he said. "The second time is now, so I vote we move forward."
Pooler's neighbors are on different clocks
For a buyer comparing new construction across the region, Pooler's fee sits inside a patchwork.
| Jurisdiction | Residential impact fee status | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Pooler | Proposed: $2,173 to $8,394 per home by size; final adoption targeted Oct. 19, 2026 | Parks, police, fire, streets |
| North Bryan, unincorporated | $3,143 per single-family home, effective Jan. 1, 2026 | Transportation only |
| South Bryan, unincorporated | $3,241 per detached single-family home on the posted 2021 schedule; fee study being updated in 2026 | Transportation only |
| Richmond Hill | No fee yet; study RFP issued Sept. 24, 2026, with a fee schedule targeted for 2027 | Study scope includes parks, roads, water and sewer, public safety |
| Springfield | Impact fee ordinance listed on the June 9, 2026 council agenda | Amount not published in the agenda |
Bryan County's fee covers transportation only, so Pooler's draft is broader. A larger Pooler home would carry a fee more than twice North Bryan's. The Richmond Hill RFP shows the gap may be temporary. Proposals are due November 5, and the city expects to award the contract at its December 1 council meeting.
Pooler is also adding the fee the same year it lowered its property tax rate. In July, council approved a rollback from 4.197 mills to 4.096 mills, about a 2.4% reduction. Taken together, the city is shifting more of the cost of new capacity onto new construction and slightly less onto every existing parcel.
What could still change
The schedule in the table is a ceiling. Council can adopt the maximum allowable fees or lower ones. The study warns that lower fees would mean raising other revenue, cutting planned capital spending, or reducing service levels. The effective date also hasn't been confirmed. The schedule has already slipped: a June workshop expected adoption in July, and the most recent staff timeline moved final adoption to October 19.
Quick answers
Does the fee apply when I buy a resale home in Pooler?
The draft collects the fee when a building permit is issued for new construction. It exempts alterations or expansions that don't add living units or change the use. A resale closing doesn't trigger it.
Are any new homes exempt?
Besides grandfathered permits, the draft lists an exemption for projects that qualify as affordable housing. City Council decides whether a project qualifies.
How would I know whether a specific new build was permitted before the fee?
The permit issue date and the first required inspection date are what count under the grandfathering clause. Builders hold that paperwork, and asking for those dates is a reasonable question during contract talks.
If you're weighing a Pooler new build against a resale, or against new construction in Bryan or Effingham County, I can help you sort out permit timing and pricing before you sign. With 25+ years in this market, I'm glad to go through a builder's contract with you line by line. Reach out to Lisa Ortiz and Let's Connect.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
