Impact fees at forefront of Manatee commission, planning commission meeting agendas this week

MANATEE -- A month after recommendations from the impact fee study were presented to the Manatee County Commission, commissioners have another chance to discuss the recommended increases in county impact fees.

At 9 a.m. Tuesday, the commission has a work session on the impact fee study, which was conducted by Bethesda, Md.-based TischlerBise, consultants hired by the county commission and the Manatee County School District.

"Now that the study has been available for review by commissioners and the community for a month, this work session will provide additional information and address issues and questions that have been raised," according to Tuesday's agenda materials.

After the work session, the issue will go to the planning commission on Thursday for a recommendation whether to approve the fees. The county commission is set to make a final decision, which could include adoption, at the Dec. 3 meeting.

If adopted on this timeline, the new fee schedule will become effective April 1, according to agenda materials.

"It's about looking at infrastructure needed to serve new growth," Assistant County Attorney Bill Clague said of impact fees in October. "It doesn't solve all the larger public policy problems. It's not an opportunity to do that. In fact, it would put us in a lot of legal trouble if we tried to do that."

The Manatee County School Board may choose Tuesday night to pass a resolution asking the county to reinstate school impact fees. At the last school board meeting, board members discussed waiting to make the decision until the December meeting, to give the public more time to look at the impact fee study.

Waiting until December would put the school district about a month behind the county timeline. Superintendent Diana Greene placed the item on the November agenda anyway, in an effort to keep the school district in line with the county timeline.

The board may approve or deny the resolution on Tuesday, or choose to table the item until the December meeting. School impact fees have not been collected since July 2009. The school district may ask the county to reinstate impact fees, but the county has the final say in the matter.

TischlerBise presented the proposed county impact fees, which are closer to fees charged to developers in 2006, during a work session on Oct. 13.

"This is new," County Administrator Ed Hunzeker said during the work session. "It's fresh off the printing press. ...At the end of the day, it's a fee that could be in place for four or five years."

Manatee County has collected impact fees on new development since 1986 and currently collects "impact fees for roads, parks, public safety and law enforcement," according to agenda materials.

The county's fees are based on the amount of development expected in each area of the county and the amount of capital improvements required for the new construction, Dwayne Guthrie, a TischlerBise representative, told commissioners.

Recommended changes to the county impact fee plan include fees based on geography, adding fees for libraries and reinstating administrative charges. Transportation fees account for the most substantial changes in the proposed impact fees.

If approved at 100 percent of the levels recommended by the study, residential impact fees would increase anywhere from $586 to $3,147, "depending on the size of the given dwelling unit and the transportation benefit district in which it is located," according to agenda materials. Nonresidential impact fees, which would exclude library and park impact fees, will "increase by anywhere from $760 to $1,252 per 1,000 square feet," depending on the transportation benefit district, according to agenda materials.

"It's a lot to take in," said Dan Schlandt, deputy county administrator. "It's a complicated thing. ... I'm sure there will be questions out in the community about them."

During both Tuesday and Thursday's impact fees agenda items, there will be opportunity for public comment. The meeting Tuesday is in the commission chambers on the first floor of the Manatee County Administrative Center, 1112 Manatee Ave. W., Bradenton.

In October, commission Chairwoman Betsy Benac said: "This is a fairly significant increase we are talking about."

-- Meghin Delaney, education reporter, contributed to this story.

Claire Aronson, Manatee County reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7024. Follow her on Twitter@Claire_Aronson.

This story was originally published November 9, 2015 at 5:27 PM with the headline "Impact fees at forefront of Manatee commission, planning commission meeting agendas this week ."