North Aurora decided this week to keep it simple when it comes to cutting the price of residential building and impact fees.

Instead of establishing a program that would have rebated a portion of the fees, it decided to temporarily charge less.

"What we've done is kind of rolled back the prices on some of those things," Village President Dale Berman said.

The reduced fees, some discounted as much as 50 percent, will be available through June, and builders will have to have projects completed within a year of getting a permit.

Trustees decided setting up a system of rebates was too cumbersome.

Fee reductions were requested by several housing developers. Building has slowed to a crawl due to the sluggish economy. The village has gone from issuing as many as 400 permits a year (in 2000) to as few as 10 so far this fiscal year. Berman said there are more than 400 residential lots waiting to be built on.

"It is not something we take lightly. We've got to do something to help things get moving," Berman said.

Specifically, the board:

• Cut the school and park land/cash fees 50 percent.

• Cut the building permit fee in half.

• Cut the plan review fee in half, from 12 percent of the building permit fee to 6 percent.

• Cut the waterworks connection fee in half.

The fees are determined by the size of the proposed home.

The board also combined the $100 storm sewer connection and inspection fee, and the $125 storm sewer permit fee, into one, and set it at $175. It also sliced the sanitary sewer connection fee from $597 to $298.50.

A $300,000 house with four bedrooms and 3,000 square feet would have been charged $14,010.30 for those fees before the discount.