Commissioners approve extension of exempted impact fees

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY – The Board of County Commissioners voted 4-1 Tuesday morning to extend its exemptions of five impact fees in an effort to spur business development, including possibly sealing a $4 million deal with the new Minotty Eye Clinic.

Commissioner Wesley Davis told his fellow board members that he would support extending the impact fee exemptions in part because of a phone call he had received regarding the clinic. He said if the commission did not approve the measure, it would kill the project.

Commissioner Gary Wheeler was the lone dissenter on the vote, saying that it is a philosophical issue. He argued that the county needed to do more to decrease the impact fee burden on commercial development, not on residential.

However, the County Attorney’s Office has advised that impact fees must be issued equally across the board, regardless of commercial or residential development.

Impact fees are fees the county assesses on developments to pay for its share of the burden to county services. Since the county began exempting certain fees, it has not collected $111,000 from commercial development or $188,000 from residential projects.

Community Development Director Bob Keating told commissioners that the lost revenue was not significant.

“It hasn’t been real successful in keeping the level of building up,” Keating said.

County Administrator Joe Baird clarified that the staff had certain goals and expectations of the exemptions, which have not been met.

Commission Chairman Peter O’Bryan said it would be difficult for the county to say the exemptions haven’t helped.

“It could have been a lot worse,” O’Bryan said of the decrease in development over the last year.

Members of the public voiced support for the continuation of the exemptions, including the Indian River Neighborhood Association.

Association Executive Director Brian Carman told commissioners that the organization would support the exemptions as “one more item in the toolbox” to help local businesses.

The impact fees that have been suspended include those for emergency services facilities, correctional facilities, public buildings, law enforcement, and solid waste facilities.

The four that have not been suspended included transportation, parks and recreation, libraries and schools. Of those, commercial developers only pay the transportation impact fees.

County staff have recommended against exempting the transportation impact fee due to the tightening budget and increasing road improvement needs.

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