A moratorium is a halt on development to protect or enhance the public health, safety and welfare of a jurisdiction.  Although a legitimate tool of local government in certain discrete instances, building moratoria are extreme measures with significant detrimental effects on the economic vitality of the Charleston Trident region and are usually used as a growth management tool instead of a way to address deficiencies in infrastructure. The Charleston Trident Home Builders Association believes that moratoria have a multitude of negative impacts on jurisdictions due to its distortion of the free market. When the free market is impeded upon a loss of jobs within the construction industry and those businesses that derive direct benefit from the purchasing power of industry workers suffers. A lengthy moratorium can also cause current residents to bear the increased cost of maintaining services due to a loss in fee generated revenue to local government. Due to the fact that most local governments do not have the resources available to adequately measure and plan for growth and rarely have the staff resources available to handle rezoning, variance and building permit applications, the Charleston Trident Home Builders Association recommends that local governments contractually hire outside resources available for these activities.