Santa Rosa commissioners quietly vote to put off impact fee discussion, residents revolt

A week ago Santa Rosa County Commissioner Sam Parker told fellow board members he could not support keeping an alternative subdivision provision within the county's land development code for fear that opposition against it was so strong it could negatively impact a vote to renew the county's half-cent sales tax.

The threat of opposition to the sales tax arose again Monday after it was learned the County Commission had voted at a budget workshop held Sept. 19 to push back any consideration of charging impact fees for county development. This time Parker and the cohorts who decided with him to table the impact fee discussion stood strong.

In the budget workshop meeting, Parker was joined by Commission Chairman Colten Wright, who was not present Monday, and commissioners James Calkins and Ray Eddington in deciding to hold off discussions on the impact fees until October of 2024. The board cited "the realistic economic hardships that people are facing" for making the move.

The move did not go over well with many county residents who have supported the fees as a way of forcing developers to contribute to the cost of infrastructure. Most didn't hesitate to tie the impact fees to their support for the half-cent sales tax.

"I was part of blocking that sales tax before, in part because it did not include impact fees," said Pace resident Sherry Chapman. "It takes 60% of the vote to pass a tax. I'm telling you, if you don't put impact fees in before the election, you wil not get the sales tax ... I will work as hard this time as I did last time (to defeat the measure)."

Discussion of renewing impact fees in Santa Rosa County to help defray the cost of the impact of development on roads, parks and law enforcement facilities got serious in May after an updated study was finalized by Duncan Associates.

The group tabulated fee estimates for Santa Rosa County that would be lower than all but four of the 31 counties in Florida that charge impact fees. For single family home construction the fees would range from $1,911 for a residence of less than 2,000 square feet up to $2,254 for homes of 3,000 square feet or larger.

The bulk of each impact fee charged would, under the Duncan Associates plan, go toward road construction. Lesser amounts would be set aside for parks and law enforcement facilities.

For the less than 2,000-square-foot home: $1,586 would go toward roads, $217 for parks and $134 for law enforcement. With the 3,000 square-foot or larger home: $1,846 would go for roads, $250 for parks and $158 toward law enforcement.

A retail or commercial developer would be charged starting at $2,919 for a 1,000-square-foot building.

Impact fees assessed for home construction are typically passed on to the home buyer.

Milton resident Jerry Couey stood during the public forum portion of the meeting to state he believed the way the discussion and vote to table the impact fees was done at the Sept. 19 meeting might have violated the Florida Sunshine Law. State statute obligates a public body to identify in public meeting notices agenda items to be discussed.

"We the people were cut out of that conversation," he said.

"People don't trust you," added Chapman. "You slide things in under first base."

In the Committee of the Whole meeting itself, Smith called for a second discussion to be held regarding the fees and asked that it be placed on an agenda at a future County Commission meeting date.

"The way we did that, I didn't think it was the best route to go," he said. "We brought a pretty contentious topic to the forefront of the meeting that three people attended. I was caught off guard."

Eddington, who voted for tabling the impact fees, said he agreed with Smith's assessment of the way the issue was handled at the budget workshop.

"We did it the wrong way," he said.

Calkins called Smith's request to bring the impact fee issue back before the board "sour grapes" and accused Smith of grandstanding.

Parker said he'd brought the impact fee topic up at the budget meeting because he was looking at it as a budget item. He said he sincerely apologized for the mistake if one was made and would be happy to engage in further discussion of what he called a "complex issue."

Impact fees will be on a future county agenda for discussion, likely in October.

Santa Rosa County officials adopted impact fees in late 2005 to build roads, but suspended them in early 2009 at around the time the country fell into what became known as the Great Recession.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Santa Rosa Commission gets chewed out for quiet tabling of impact fee talks