Indian River County Impact Fee Study Final Report - irccdd.com

o municipal reporting requirements concerning the collection and transmittal
of impact fee revenues; and
o development of annual capital improvement programs to expend the fees.
• The administrative charge borne by municipalities will be included within the
impact fee and not as an “add-on” cost.
Imposition, Calculation, and Collection of Impact Fees
• Impact fees may be imposed as early as subdivision approval and as late as the
issuance of the certificate of occupancy.
• Most communities require payment prior to the issuance of the building permit.
• A procedure must be included in the ordinance that allows the applicant to submit
an independent impact fee calculation following a prescribed county
methodology. For example, the current IRC Traffic Impact Fee Ordinance
provides that:
o the County Administrator or designee shall have the right to accept or
reject the applicant’s Independent Impact Fee Study; and
o an appeal of the County Administrator’s decision may be made to the
BCC.
• Impact fee revenue must be deposited into segregated accounts to ensure that
revenues will be expended for the provision of capital facilities for which the fees
are collected.
Use of Impact Fee Revenue
• Collected impact fees may be spent only on the public facilities for which they
were collected.
• Fees cannot be spent for operations and maintenance and must be spent only for
capital facilities and costs incidental to the capital facilities (e.g., fees can be spent
on additional library books because they are necessary to put the library facilities
to use).
• Impact fee revenues spent on privately-owned lands or educational facilities must
revert to the School Board in the event the charter school ceases operation as a
publicly-sponsored school facility.
• Impact fees must be spent within a reasonable period of time to strengthen the
nexus between the fee payer and the benefit provided by the capital facilities.
• Most communities in Florida require fees to be spent within six years.
• Reasonable geographic areas for the demonstration of benefit have been
determined by the courts to be as large as countywide.
• The determination of a proper benefit area depends on the background data and
nature of the service being provided (see Table I-1, which summarizes
considerations associated with service areas and benefit districts in IRC).
Tindale-Oliver & Associates, Inc.
Indian River County
May 2005 I-7 Impact Fee Study