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Don't hesitate to raise impact fees for schools

If there was a college course titled Growth Management 101, on the first day you would learn this truism:

"Growth does not pay for itself."

And that would be the premise upon which you made all your decisions about planning and managing growth.

Florida's fastest-growing counties, including Hernando, wrestle every day with that reality, achieving varied results. In places where the population increase is rapid and the landscape is being transformed from rural to suburban, it is almost impossible to keep pace with the demand for improved infrastructure. In an attempt to meet the need, local governments levy impact fees on new construction.

These onetime charges are collected and used to help pay for roads, schools, parks, law enforcement, public buildings, libraries, firefighting and ambulances. There are different rates for each of those categories and the last time they were raised in Hernando was June 2002.

The County Commission now is poised to consider a recommendation by its staff members to more than double the fee for one of the most immediate and expensive needs - schools.

The commissioners should embrace this opportunity to provide the school district with more money to build new schools, and they should act as soon as possible.

The proposal, which will be applied only to new residential construction, would raise the impact fee for a single-family house from $2,406 to $4,982. The fee for a townhouse or condominium would rise from $2,013 to $3,801. And the charge for an apartment would climb from $1,858 to $3,924.

The money those increases could generate for schools is significant. At the current rate, about $6.2-million a year in impact fees is collected for new school construction. If the commission approves the increase, that amount jumps to an estimated $12.4-million annually.

Over five years, that total of about $62-million would pay for another K-8 school that would house 1,600 students plus a 1,000-student K-5 school, according to district officials. Or, it could pay for more than half of the estimated cost to build a 4,000-student high school in the developing Ridge Manor area.

The commission has not yet scheduled a discussion about raising the impact fees, and once it does, it must hold two hearings to accept comment from the public. Commissioners should put that process in motion as soon as possible. The longer they wait, the more money they deny the school district.

Consider how quickly the fees add up during this building boom: The Hernando County Development Department issued permits to build 352 new houses in January. If that trend continues, there could be 4,224 new single-family residences either completed or under construction by the end of 2005.

Multiply that number of homes by the $2,576 difference between the existing school impact feeand the proposed one, and it adds up to more than $10.8-million. If the commission had reviewed the impact fees last fall, as it was scheduled to do, and implemented them by the first of the year, that money would already be flowing into the school district's coffers.

The proposed increases likely will face opposition from builders and developers who, in the past, have contended that higher impact fees deter home buyers and slow residential growth. That weak argument is not supported by even anecdotal evidence. New housing starts are setting 25-year highs and builders have passed the increases in impact fees on to home buyers who remain eager to take advantage of Hernando County's flourishing real estate market and relatively low property tax rate.

More of the cost to improve infrastructure must be borne by those who should pay - new homeowners and developers who are creating a demonstrable demand. The alternative (remember the premise that growth does not pay for itself) is for existing residents to foot more of the bill by paying higher property taxes.

Raising school impact fees to the highest allowable level is the first step in what should be a focused and expedited effort by the commission to do the same in other categories later this year.

[Last modified March 13, 2005, 00:22:15]