No current uniform format for fiscal neutrality

SARASOTA -- When developers submit fiscal neutrality reports to Sarasota County, there is no uniform format.

With help from a third-party consultant, AECOM, Sarasota County is now working to make it consistent for developers to create fiscal neutrality reports, county planner Bill Spaeth said Monday.

Last November, the county began developing a method for calculating fiscal neutrality at the beginning of ta proposed project. Fiscal neutrality means any new infrastructure will not raise Sarasota County taxes.

With the Sarasota County Commission's approval of Sarasota 2050 plan amendments in October, phased monitoring requirements were eliminated. The whole project now must be deemed fiscally neutral before work begins.

"(The consultants are) taking the existing policy and code as they are and developing a manual that the county can hand out to potential developers," Spaeth said. "This is how you go about developing fiscal neutrality reports. It now tends to be different every time. We have got to get these things consistent."

Spaeth said he expects AECOM to send a draft of this methodology to the county in the next few weeks and the report will be made available for public comment until the end of March. It will then be turned back to the consultant to respond to questions and comments, Spaeth said.

"Any and all comments received must be replied to," he said.

The methodology is expected to go before the Sarasota County Planning Commission and the county commission in public hearings in late spring or early summer, he added.

Developers have always been required to hire a third-party consultant to compile fiscal neutrality reports. The county hires the reviewer, which is paid for by the developer.

With one process, Spaeth said he hopes it will be easier for all involved parties.

"It is more of a manual that says here is where you go and here's a source of all dollars and figures you should be using in your analysis," he said. "The county would be looking to rely on the manual pretty heavily. ... There is a very clear legal structure that is applied to this and the county can't go outside the structure."

Information: scgov.net/CompPlan/Pages/Sarasota2050.aspx.

Claire Aronson, University Parkway/Sarasota reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7024 or at caronson@bradenton.com. Follow her on Twitter@Claire_Aronson.

This story was originally published February 10, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "No current uniform format for fiscal neutrality ."