INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — In what may be the final chapter of the long-running Fund 101 impact fee controversy, the Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday approved a detailed refund ordinance outlining a method for returning more than $1 million to island property owners.
Community Development Director Bob Keating said he hoped to send out notices to those due money within “the next few days,” informing them of the refund procedure.
According to Charlie Wilson, the businessman/activist who first challenged the county over unspent money in impact fee funds, individual homeowners are likely to receive approximately $2,000.
Fund 101 holds money collected by the county between 1985 and 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.
Last summer, Wilson began to appear at Board meetings arguing the unspent money – approximately $1.2 million in fees and interest – should be returned to some 400 property owners on the barrier island.
Staff insisted no refunds were due and said the money in the fund was needed to improve the A1A/17th Street Causeway intersection.
At first, commissioners seemed to agree with staff. But as Wilson kept up the pressure and County Attorney Alan Polackwich researched the question of impact fee refunds, which is not clearly addressed in Florida law, Board sentiment began to shift.
In its most recent prior action on the matter in January, the Board instructed Polackwich to craft an ordinance that would refund all unspent fees and interest to island property owners.
The ordinance passed yesterday back-pedaled from that. Under the approved procedure, letters of refund eligibility notification will go out to approximately 460 people chosen on the basis of when they paid their fees, starting with the most recent payment and working back. If all of them claim their refunds, that will exhaust the money in Fund101.
However, Wilson, staff and commissioners believe not everyone will respond. If that happens, there will be another mailing that targets a second tier of eligible property owners numerous enough to absorb any leftover amount.
If money remains after that mailing, because some of the second tier do not respond or decline the refund, the cash will stay in county coffers to help fund improvement of the A1A/17th Street Causeway intersection.
Commissioner Peter O’Bryan, who has supported staff’s contention that the Fund 101 money is needed to improve the intersection, stipulated there be a box on the refund application property owners can check to indicate they waive their refund and want the money spent on the roads they drive each day.
Other commissioners went along with the idea but expressed skepticism about its impact on county finances.
“If you get one of those back with the box checked, I’d like to see it,” said Commissioner Wesley Davis.
