Pasco County’s Development Review Committee is slated to discuss a proposal that would raise the impact fees charged to new residential development to help address the impact that new growth has on schools.
Under the proposed ordinance, the fees could be used to build new schools, acquire school sites or purchase new school buses.
(File)
Pasco County already imposes school impact fees, but the new fees would be substantially more than is currently collected.
Here are the proposed fees:
- Single-family detached residences: $7,540, for homes 1,500 square feet or less; $9,785 for homes between 1,501 square feet and 2,499 square feet; and, $12,028 for homes of 2,500 square feet or more
- Single-family attached: $3,633 per dwelling
- Mobile homes: $5,544 per dwelling
- Multifamily: $5,295 per dwelling
These are the current fees:
- Single-family detached: $4,828 per dwelling (no distinction based on size)
- Single-family attached: $1,740 per dwelling
- Mobile home: $2,843 per dwelling
- Multifamily: $1,855 per dwelling
The fees do not apply to age-restricted communities, where residents are 55 and older.
Even if the county adopts the proposed rates, school district officials estimate a $284 million shortfall in revenue needed for capital construction during the next decade.
The development review committee meeting, which is open to the public, is set for May 25 at 1:30 p.m., in the board room at the West Pasco County Government Center, 8731 Citizens Drive in New Port Richey.
The development review committee, under the direction of the county administrator, reviews proposed developments and policies, and makes recommendations to the Pasco County Commission. It includes representatives of several different county departments and a representative from Pasco County Schools’ staff.
The school impact fee issue boils down to rapidly increasing school enrollment outpacing the school district’s ability to build schools to house the students.
Concerned about the problem, the school district hired a consultant to do an impact fee study.
That study recommended substantially higher impact fees.
The County Commission reacted by appointing a Pasco County School Infrastructure Funding Committee, which recommended the consultant’s highest fees be adopted, but only if the school board put a referendum on the 2018 ballot seeking a sales tax increase to support school construction.
The infrastructure funding committee’s recommendation fell flat with county commissioners, who resisted the idea of requiring the referendum.
As Commission Chairman Mike Moore put it during a May 2 workshop on the issue: “I’m not very keen on the recommendation for this board to attempt to almost hijack the process, or tie the school board’s hands by forcing them to go out and raise the sales tax. That makes me uncomfortable.”
Instead, commissioners directed county staff to prepare an ordinance to increase the school impact fee, and to schedule the development review committee meeting and two public hearings.
Absent specific direction for the amount to include in the proposed ordinance, the county’s legal staff said it would use the full amount recommended by the consultant.
The proposed ordinance does not include a requirement for the school board to ask voters for a sales tax increase to support schools.
But, it notes that except for annual adjustments that may be made based on construction costs, “the school impact fee shall not be updated in a manner that would result in an increased school impact fee for (a) period of 10 years after the effective date of the 2017 school impact fee rate increase.”
In addition to the review committee’s session, the County Commission has set two public hearings on the proposed changes to the county’s school impact fees.
Considerable debate is likely.
Proponents of the higher fees are expected to contend that new growth should pay for itself, that there’s no question the schools are needed and that there are no other sources of revenue available.
Opponents, on the other hand are likely to argue that new development is being forced to shoulder too much of the cost, that the size of the fees put Pasco County in a competitive disadvantage and that the higher fees will make it essentially impossible to provide affordable housing.
The first public hearing on the the school impact fees issue is set for June 20 at 1:30 p.m., in the commission’s board room at the West Pasco Government Center. The second is set for July 11 at 1:30 p.m., on the second floor of the Historic County Courthouse, at 37918 Meridian Ave., in Dade City.
Published May 24, 2017
