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County Commissioners Side with DevelopersI was disappointed to discover that the Santa Rosa County BOCC voted to support a developer favored moratorium on road impact fees until 12/31/09. These road impact fees generated $1.8 million in 2008, and $9.3 million since their implementation in 2004. When the fact that the County only collects about $60 million per year in property taxes is considered, it is obvious that this is a relatively huge loss in revenues that will either be made up by new taxes, or result in worse roads than we currently have. Concerning impact fees in Florida, it is important to understand that 41 out of 67 counties in Florida have impact fees, and most of these counties have been experiencing growth. Most Florida counties with impact fees use them for roads, schools, parks, libraries, fire protection, police protection, and government buildings. The average total impact fee for a 2,000 sf home in Florida is $7,340, whereas, Santa Rosa County only charges a road impact fee for single family homes of $2,090 in urban areas and $1,222 in rural areas. This moratorium decision was made on the heels of a County Goal-Setting Workshop held on 1/29/09 at 9:00 am, a time convenient for developers, but not convenient to the working public. Accordingly, there appeared to be mostly developers and their supporters, i.e., contractors and realtors who appear to believe that they will benefit the most from the moratorium. The Commissioners have been led to believe that the moratorium will stimulate economic activity. There is no evidence to support this belief; rather, I suggest that there are some very negative aspects to this moratorium. First, if the developers do build more single-family homes the current residents trying to sell their homes will face stiff competition from the new homes in this poor housing market with over 7,000 homes for sale. Second, the workshop provided strengths and weaknesses developed in a previous workshop. A weakness listed was "Sources of funding not well diversified and too dependent on property taxes." The negative aspect of the moratorium in this case is that it will reduce the diversity of funding sources. Third, among the possible goals provided in the presentation was "Research any available road funds or other funds." The negative side of the moratorium is that it will significantly reduce available road funds. By their actions with this moratorium, it appears that the Commissioners would rather tax the existing homeowners in the County than reduce the profits of the wealthy developers. My primary understanding of impact fees is based on my experience living in Manatee County for 33 years. In the early years of growth in Manatee County the BOCC made its decisions regarding development under the assumption that impact fees would be counter productive to growth and development. Furthermore, they assumed that the costs of the additional infrastructure required by growth should be borne by property owners. However, after a few years this idea became an exercise in futility because the rise in property taxes could not keep pace with the maintenance of existing infrastructure plus the costs involved with the new infrastructure required. Subsequently, the Manatee County BOCC established impact fees. The result was that in addition to providing much needed infrastructure funds, it was shown that growth and development was not impeded, but rather it accelerated. During the above period, the population of Manatee County grew from 60,000 to 300,000, and after several increases in impact fees, the current total impact fee for a 2,000 sf house in Manatee County is $15,529. Don't let the developers run our County! Please contact the BOCC and tell them to start planning for a full array of impact fees to help pay for the infrastructure required when the housing bust is over and the building growth regains its prior levels. Roy Raines |