The Supreme Court transferred this case to us after determining that the trial court’s decision to deny equitable relief was ancillary to the issue of whether the appellants had standing to bring the disputed claim. For reason which follow, we affirm the trial court’s decision to deny equitable relief. The facts necessary to resolve this appeal are not in dispute. On February 1, 2005, the Newton County Board of Commissioners adopted a development impact fee ordinance pursuant to the Georgia Development Impact Fee Act, OCGA § 36-71-1 et seq. The Board of Commissioners also adopted a Capital Improvement Element “CIE” as required by the Act. Pursuant to the ordinance and the CIE, a permit applicant is required to pay an impact fee at the time a building permit is issued by Newton County. This fee is used to pay for the cost of future improvements with respect to the following impact fee facilities: libraries, parks and recreation, and roads and intersections. Impact fees are to be imposed on the development in proportion to the cost of system improvements that are reasonably related to the service demands and needs of the development.
The ordinance went into effect on March 16, 2005, at which time Newton County began collecting impact fees. On December 5, 2005, Newton County Homebuilders Association, Inc. and Home Builders Association of Georgia, Inc. collectively “homebuilders associations” sued Newton County, alleging the impact fee program was illegal for numerous reasons and seeking interlocutory relief to have all impact fee funds already collected and those funds collected in the future to be held in a common fund until the court determined whether the impact fee program was illegal. The underlying basis for most of the claims challenging Newton County’s adoption of the ordinance was Newton County’s alleged attempts to shift the burden of the impact fees onto residential growth regardless of whether such a shift was supported by any data. However, these fact do not concern us in this appeal.
