INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — After more than six months of contentious debate and gradually shifting opinions on the Board of County Commissioners, the Board today voted to return $1.2 million in the impact fees Fund 101 to property owners on the barrier island.
In its most recent prior action on the matter, the Board voted in December to refund $132,000 in unspent impact fees in the fund, along with interest on that money, while retaining nearly $1 million in interest that had accrued on other fees that were spent.
That compromise was undercut when county staff revealed the amount of unspent impact fees remaining in Fund 101 was actually $255,000, nearly double the amount previously disclosed.
In part because of that error, which seemed to shake the Board’s confidence in a calibrated partial refund process based on staff’s figures, Commissioners Wesley Davis and Bob Solari were able to successfully re-argue for a total refund. They were strongly supported by Commissioner Joe Flescher and Commission Chairman Gary Wheeler.
Commissioner Peter O’Bryan was the lone holdout, arguing to use some of the money in the fund for improvements to the A1A/17th Street intersection on the island, as would have happened under the December compromise.
He said if all the money is returned and the intersection remains unimproved future development on the southern part of the island may be hampered. He also noted that treating the actual fees and interest on the fees separately was legitimate.
“We have had two legal opinions that say we are correct in the way we have handled the money.”
O’Bryan said.
County Administrator Joe Baird expressed similar sentiments.
“I think we are overreacting here,” Baird said. “You are going to end up in a situation where you need new infrastructure and you won’t have the money.”
Fund 101 holds money collected by the county prior to 1999 on the barrier island south of Beachland Boulevard to pay for infrastructure improvements necessitated by new development.
According to county ordinance, fees not spent within six years had to be refunded, but the same ordinance allowed only a one-year refund period and no one applied before the window closed in 2005.
For months County Budget Director Jason Brown has been adamant most of the money was spent upgrading roads, leaving only $132,000 in principle along with more than a $1 million in interest.
The error in calculating the amount of fees remaining stemmed from a period in the 1990s when all fee money had been spent and the county was expending interest on road projects, according to County Attorney Alan Polackwich.
“If you just look at what was spent and subtracted that from the amount of fees collected, you get the $132,000 figure,” Polackwich said. “But some of what was spent was interest so there are actually more fees left.”
Commissioner Solari credited county resident Charlie Wilson with moving the Board in the direction of a total refund.
“Mr. Wilson and his group have helped develop the argument for a total refund, and it is pretty clear that without their help we wouldn’t have gone as far in this direction.”
Wilson formed a private, for-profit company, Asset Research and Recovery, in 2010 to help individuals get due refunds from government.
“They did the right thing, finally,” said Wilson of the board’s action. “I want to thank Commissioner Flescher for his efforts. He spent a great deal of time with me discussing this and it is because of him and Wesley and Bob Solari these people are going to get their money back.”
The county attorney will now draft an ordinance, or amendment to the original impact fee ordinance, that determines how the refund money is disbursed.
Based on today’s discussion, it will likely go first to the owner of the property that paid the most recent fee and work back from there, refunding both principle and interest on that principle to each owner until the fund is exhausted. The county will most likely notify those due a refund by mail and require them to sign an affidavit they own the property for which the fee was paid.
“We are going to take it all the way back to zero so we don’t have anything to worry about,” said Davis. “It is the only right thing to do.”
According to Wilson, individual refunds will be in neighborhood of $2,000.
