Developers catch a break on impact fees

At the behest of home builders and developers, impact fees will remain at 90 percent rather than increase to 100 percent next month.

Manatee County commissioners voted 4-2 in favor of the land development code ordinance. Commissioners Carol Whitmore, Betsy Benac, Vanessa Baugh and Charles Smith supported it, while Priscilla Whisenant Trace and Robin DiSabatino were against it. Commissioner Stephen Jonsson abstained due to a potential conflict of interest.

“I can’t support the increase,” Smith said. “My job is to empower economic development.”

Impact fees are one-time payments per home built to account for future infrastructure needs, usually paid for by the homeowner. The fees are only allowed to be spent in the transportation quadrant they are collected in.

In 2015, after a review by TischlerBise, commissioners voted to approve a 10 percent increase of impact fees over a three-year period. The next increase would have been April 18.

Last spring, commissioners held work sessions about bringing this land development code ordinance forward for a vote. The proposed 10 percent increase for a 2,000-square-foot single-family home would have meant an increase of $728 for the southwest district, $847 for the southeast, $1,013 in the northwest and $1,049 in the northeast district.

The difference of money going to infrastructure projects could have been as much $2 million.

Benac also noted that in comparison, the county only charges 35 percent of the allowable ad valorem tax.

Pete Logan, president of home builder Medallion Home, said the 2015 study undervalued the amount of ad valorem taxes the county brings in. He added that there isn’t a need to increase impact fees because new residents are already paying for new needs.

“The average price of an existing home in Manatee County is $295,000, and the average price of a new home is north of $300,000,” Logan said. “If you look at it from that perspective, growth is paying for growth currently already.”

The increase would make it more difficult for working families to buy a home, said Jon Mast, president of the Manatee-Sarasota Building Industry Association.

“When it comes to impact fees, the pain isn’t worth the gain,” Mast said. “The argument from the ‘tax and spend’ crowd is that by not collecting the highest legal limit of impact fees, commissioners are leaving money on the table. That’s dead wrong. That money stays in taxpayer’s pockets, not the government’s.”

Opponents to the fee cap included Matt Bower, former planning commissioner.

“They’re not giving this money back to the home buyers,” he said, in response to Mast’s claim.

He also asked if this 10 percent would mean more county projects could be completed.

Resident Ed Goff contended that the growing county doesn’t mean infrastructure need disappears.

“We can’t cut any corners,” Goff said. “We can’t just skip it.”

This story was originally published March 20, 2018 at 6:18 PM with the headline "Developers catch a break on impact fees."