Santa Rosa CountyCommissioners are again considering impact fees on new construction to help pay for infrastructure needed to keep up with growth in the county.
At Thursday’s regular meeting, board members heard a presentation from the firm Duncan Associates, which was asked in January to update their 2020 study on impact fees.
The study proposes three benefit districts to include the more northern, rural part of the county that includes the Town of Jay; the more urbanized, central core that includes the City of Milton; and the southern part of the county including Gulf Breeze and Navarre.
“So the fees that are collected in each of these areas would be earmarked to be spent in those areas,” said the firm’s Clancy Mullin, who made the presentation.
“The single family average fee, if you go with that option, would be just under $2,000 (per) unit, $1,600 for roads, $200 for parks, and a little over $100 for law enforcement,” he stated in reference to the calculation.
“Impact fees are not the silver bullet. They're not the answer to all of our infrastructure ills,” said Board Chairman Colten Wright.
While recognizing that the county could always pursue a better solution, if one is presented, Wright said he believes impact fees have their place. He added that what’s being proposed in the study sounds equitable.
“Frankly, I see the $1,636 average for a single family home appears to be pretty darn reasonable, particularly when you go back to 2005, when they were originally adopted as road impact fees,” he said. “A single family home at that time was $2,090 if you're in an urban area or $1,222 if you're in a more rural area of Santa Rosa County.”
However, at this point not all commissioners are onboard with the idea of enacting impact fees.
“This proposal concerns me,” said Commissioner James Calkins, adding that an impact fee is really just another tax to charge homeowners.
“I think that this issue about the impact tax is bad timing. I think there's a lot of military folks and seniors and kids getting out of school and all that, wanting to buy new homes. And I think we need to be looking for ways of lowering costs, not raising costs.”
Besides, Calkins pointed out that county revenues are up.
“We are doing well right now, because we're living off of ad valorem tax,” said Commissioner Kerry Smith, with a caution the current high-cost housing market.
“I'm going to tell you right now, ad valorem is about to hit us between the eyes, because we're going to see a value reduction on these properties. We're going to have to see a large reduction, basically, a fallout in the market to correct the market.”
Smith supports implementation of impact fees, but with carve outs for affordable housing.
Commissioner Sam Parker is in the real estate business and says he paid the impact fee for the home he purchased in 2006. He opposes impact fees, as an unfair burden on newer homeowners, who are also assessed more in property taxes.
“Brand new house verses existing house; in almost every case they’re going to be paying twice, if not three-times, as much property tax every single year,” stated Parker. “And, so I just go to say that new construction already pays far more.”
Parker suggested commissioners consider looking at the use of Tourist Development Council (TDC) concessions as a way to help pay for growth.
Commissioners ended their discussion of impact fees with instruction for staff to continue to review of the issue, along with concerns and options, and move forward with development of an ordinance for board members to vote on.
