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Demand for new schools ratchets up

A discussion of impact fees on new homes begins with the district's estimate that growth will fill 23 schools in half the time once thought.

By REBECCA CATALANELLO
Published March 16, 2005

LAND O'LAKES - Pasco County needs 23 schools in the next five years to keep up with student growth.

School leaders jolted county commissioners with that information Tuesday morning before making their case for more than doubling school impact fees to $4,314 for a single-family home.

Until now, the often-quoted construction need was 20 schools in 10 years. But district administrator Ray Gadd said new figures indicate the uphill race to keep up with growth is only getting steeper: "Not only has the number of schools we're going to need increased, we've compressed the timeline."

Twenty-two government officials from across the county gathered around tables Tuesday to discuss to what extent developers and new home buyers should shoulder the cost of that school construction by paying impact fees.

The fees are one-time charges on construction to help government - in this case, schools - keep up with the pressures created by development.

For the past three years, buyers of newly built single-family homes paid $1,694. The proposal being bandied about by School Board members raises that by 155 percent.

"We don't mind helping," said Robert Williams, an attorney for the Pasco Building Association, as the meeting broke up. But the group is asking for a couple of specific allowances - and one of them has to do with how the fee is collected.

TischlerBise, the firm hired to study the impact fee, arrived at the proposed increase based on land prices, per-student housing costs, projected tax revenue and population growth, among other things.

Also factored in is an allowance for portable classrooms at each new school, a reality that Commissioners Steve Simon and Ted Schrader marveled at.

"Is it fair for us to be collecting this for the use of portables?" Schrader asked. Most parents, he said, plop down money for impact fees thinking there's going to be "a nice new school there."

Paul Tischler, president of TischlerBise, said the study had to consider the current level of services offered by the schools. And the fact is that 8,000 students - enough to fill nine elementary schools - are currently housed in portable classroom buildings.

"If we did away with all the portables," County Attorney Robert Sumner told those gathered, "the impact fee would be horrendous."

Commissioner Simon said officials were too conservative when they set the original fees in 2001. With that in mind, He suggested that the county allow for fluctuations in construction costs by tying the fee to an independent inflationary index figure like one published by Engineering News Record.

"Don't step on those necks over there," Simon said, referring to representatives of the home builders association seated in one corner of the room, "but extract as much as you can extract."

Hearing his remarks, builders association executive director Nita Beckwith stared silently up at the ceiling, her arms folded and her lips pursed. Afterward, she referred all comment about the idea to Williams, the attorney.

"I think we'd just like to see one price we can depend on," he said.

The builders association is pushing for a new collection method that would enable the school district to collect part of the fee at the time developers plat land. Now, owners of new homes pay the fee when they move in. The association's proposal - called "capacity assessment units" - would enable homeowners to pay the fee over time as part of their annual property tax bill. And the school district could bond the money.

School Board members plan to make a formal impact fee recommendation to the County Commission on April 5. The public is invited to give input about the plan June 7 and June 21 before the County Commission.

[Last modified March 16, 2005, 01:32:17]