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Builders pay early to save on impact fee
By TERESA BURNEY, Times Staff Writer BROOKSVILLE -- It was one time Gary Schraut didn't mind waiting in line. "Oh, no, heck, I figure it worked out to about $500 a minute I saved: about $30,000," said Schraut of Coldwell Banker Schraut and Associates. Schraut and a steady stream of others lined up at the county's zoning office Friday, the deadline to pay impact fees in advance and avoid the county's impact fee increase, which added about $2,000 to the cost of each home. Of course, to save money the applicants had to pay money in advance, before many even have concrete plans on when or what they will build on the property. "I'm going to go to the bank right now to borrow" the money spent Friday, said Schraut. Still, the interest on the loan won't come anywhere near what he saves, said Schraut, who expects to build within a year on the 20 or so lots for which he prepaid impact fees Friday. Many others took the same view. The county accepted impact fee prepayments for 752 lots in May, 208 of those on Friday. In a normal month, the county might get a handful of prepayments, said Jodi Singer, operations coordinator for the county's development department. The county's lobby was full all day long, said Lea Fussell, the county's zoning coordinator. "It was expected, but unexpected. You think you are prepared. . . . There was just never a break," Fussell said. Still, no one was turned away, she said. Hernando County raised its impact fees last October as a way to help pay the costs of building better roads, schools and improved services for new residents. The largest share of the increase will go to the school district. The schools' impact fee for a single-family home rose from $1,173 to $2,406. The second-greatest increase will go to pay for road improvements. That fee rose 49 percent, from $1,237 to $1,845. Developers have classically complained about impact fees, saying the increases make homes less affordable and out of reach to lower-income people. There is no deadline to build once the fees are paid.
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From today's Hernando Times Letters |
