The Pasco County Planning Commission at its July 25 meeting in New Port Richey agreed to recommend approving an ordinance to increase School Impact Fees and to pass it on to the Pasco County Board of County Commissioners (BCC). The Planning Commission acts in an advisory capacity to the BCC, which has the final authority to adopt or reject the ordinance.
According to a report at the meeting, the impact fee for a single-family home is currently $8,328, and the proposed impact fee for that structure will be $9,328 in 2025 when the ordinance will be effective, if the BCC adopts it. The impact fee would then increase by $1,000 per year through 2028 when it would be $12,328.
L. Carson Bise, president of TischlerBise, a fiscal, economic and planning business located in Bethesda, Maryland, and Boise, Idaho, shared this information with Planning Commission members. He has nearly 30 years experience in calculating school impact fees and similar fees.
The BCC will hold the first reading of the ordinance on Aug. 6 during its meeting in Dade City. The second reading and possible adoption will be held on Aug. 21 during a meeting in New Port Richey.
School impact fees are one-time levies on newly permitted single-family homes, multi-family homes and mobile homes. The funds collected will be used by the Pasco County School District to help pay for school construction, including additional classroom space, and the purchase of land and school buses.
The reason the proposed increases will be spread over a four-year time frame is because they are between 25% and 50% higher than the current rates that were adopted in 2017, Bise said.
A study on the need for possible increase of impact fees is required every four years, he added. If the ordinance is adopted, it will be effective Jan. 1, 2025.
The cost of building schools has nearly doubled since 2017 during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Ray Gadd, deputy superintendent of the Pasco County School District.
It cost about $178 per square foot to construct Cypress Creek Middle School in 2017. The cost for a school building that was recently constructed was about $390 per square foot, Gadd told Planning Commission members.
It would cost between $67 million and $100 million to build a high school, Gadd said.
Another reason the proposed increase in the impact fees is needed is because there are currently nearly 90,000 students attending schools in Pasco County, including charter schools, according to Alison Crumbley, a 14-year member of the Pasco County School Board.
Bise estimated that the enrollment would increase by 13,700 students over the next 10 years.
“We understand the importance of the schools in our community for us and for our buyers and for everything,” said Edward Briggs, a representative of the Tampa Bay Builders Association (TBBA).
He added he appreciated that the TBBA had been consulted with prior to the proposed increases in school impact fees.
In other business, Planning Commission members:
- Continued until Aug. 8 a decision on a requested change in zoning from PO-2 Professional Office and MF-2 Multiple Family High Density Districts to a C-1 Neighborhood Commercial District requested by Lakeshore Blvd LLC.
The applicant seeks to be able to develop a freestanding commercial and recreational vehicle and boat storage facility on the approximately 3.62 acres located on the west side of Lakeshore Boulevard, approximately 233 feet southwest of Fivay Road. The applicant reportedly also requested a special exception for the property, but that information wasn’t available during the meeting.
The decision to continue it was made due to Planning Commission members’ desire to have all the facts before they decide on whether to agree to send it to the BCC for their approval.
- Recommended approval of a zoning change requested by Residences at Rolling Hills MPUD Master Planned Unit Development – Dan-Nico Properties LLC from MF-1 Multi-Family Medium Density District to an MPUD Master Planned Unit Development. The applicant wants to be allowed to construct 132 Multi-Family Units, 104 Senior Apartments, 3,600 Square Feet of Medical Offices and a minimum of 3,000 square feet of Retail Uses on approximately 9.87 acres, located on the southwest corner of the intersection of Little Road and Denton Avenue.
- Recommended approval of a zoning change requested by Affordable Secure Storage from an I-1 Light Industrial Park District to a C-2 General Commercial District for approximately 4.824 acres of property that is on the north side of New York Avenue, approximately 320 feet east of Utica Drive. The applicant proposes to expand the contractor’s offices and to develop the property with a self-storage facility in conformance with applicable parts of Pasco County’s Land Development Code (LDC).
- Recommended approval of a zoning change requested by L S McAmis/Blue Sky Storage for a change in zoning from an R-MH Mobile Home District to a C-2 General Commercial District on approximately 2.4318 acres located on the northwest corner of the intersection of Moon Lake Road and Boatswain Drive. The applicant proposes to develop the property with freestanding recreational vehicle/boat storage space in conformance with applicable parts of the LDC.
The BCC has the final authority on whether to grant those requested zoning changes.
Published August 7, 2024
