[DAVES]

Originally Posted by Goldwingnut

I don’t know where you came up with that load of horse manure but it is completely false. The Villages, just like every other builder in the county includes impact fees in all new home sales. Note I use the term “includes” as the developer, just like every other business in the world, does not pay taxes or fees, they collect them from their customers and passes them on the the respective governmental body.

I say this with 100% confidence as i have purchased 2 new homes in The Villages in the last 12 years and then closing documents all included the impact fees on the closing sheet and also as a County Commissioner who has spent the last 4 years in up to my ears dealing with impact fees and every other aspect of the county budget.

That being said, state statutes mandates a discounted impact fee for age restricted communities of 60%. The Villages and every other age restricted community in Sumter County qualifies for this discounted rate.

Surprised they allow calling horse m what it is. Posts are OPINIONS. Wise to confirm ALL OPINIONS before accepting them as FACT

I'm not in government, Imagine trying to define FAIR and write it into LAW. PEOPLE do not agree to what FAIR is. The Villages is an economic powerhouse. Something about two homes in the Villages and four years. Should not be a surprise. More attention goes to a powerhouse. REALITY IS A PAIN IN THE HORSE.

[golfing eagles]

Originally Posted by DAVES

Surprised they allow calling horse m what it is. Posts are OPINIONS. Wise to confirm ALL OPINIONS before accepting them as FACT

I'm not in government, Imagine trying to define FAIR and write it into LAW. PEOPLE do not agree to what FAIR is. The Villages is an economic powerhouse. Something about two homes in the Villages and four years. Should not be a surprise. More attention goes to a powerhouse. REALITY IS A PAIN IN THE HORSE.

WHAT!!!!!!??????

Some posts are "opinion", others are fact. You can pretty much assume Goldwing"s posts are factual

[BillyGrown]

Impact fees aren’t for the general fund, but they can be used for a host of budget items. Building infrastructure like police stations fire stations , libraries and even parks can all be done with the fees. Also the fees can be used for maintenance of all those facilities as well as many others resources. Fees can be used for all sorts of studies. They can’t be used for general salaries. Any county in Florida is permitted to set their rates as seen fit.

[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by BillyGrown

Impact fees aren’t for the general fund, but they can be used for a host of budget items. Building infrastructure like police stations fire stations , libraries and even parks can all be done with the fees. Also the fees can be used for maintenance of all those facilities as well as many others resources. Fees can be used for all sorts of studies. They can’t be used for general salaries. Any county in Florida is permitted to set their rates as seen fit.

Impact fees cannot be used for most of the things mentioned, at least not properly.

[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by golfing eagles

WHAT!!!!!!??????

Some posts are "opinion", others are fact. You can pretty much assume Goldwing"s posts are factual

Absolutely agree. We sometimes draw different conclusions but his facts are indisputable.

[BillyGrown]

Originally Posted by Bill14564

Impact fees cannot be used for most of the things mentioned, at least not properly.

I understand you have a right to your own interpretation. Here is the applicable statute. The funds can be used for A-LOT of things.

https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2026/0163.31801

[Rainger99]

Originally Posted by Goldwingnut

The impact fees and the bond are completely separate entities. It is not included in the bond.

The bond is more general in usage as it is used for retention ponds, water supply lines, roads, storm drains, landscaping, etc. Where as the Road Impact Fee collected by the County can only be used for expanding capacity due to growth. The expanded capacity can be in the form or additional lanes and traffic control devices or in adding additional roads due to growth as is the case for the Regional Road Agreement between The Villages and Sumter County, adding residential roadways would generally not fall into this capacity expansion requirement.

The impact fees are collected as a part of the home closing costs and are shown on the Closing Cost Disclosure. Looking a my disclosure for my 2024 home purchase it is shown in section H. Other item 02 City/County Permit/Impact Fee for $1361.50. This fee is listed in the column "Seller-Paid" "At Closing", - I can assure you that these fees and well as the other $17K+ fees in the Seller-Paid column were included in the calculations for determining what the selling price of the home, just like labor, material, and any other cost associated with building the home.

I just went into my closet and pulled out my closing papers. I haven't looked at them since 2021.

I had a lot of fees under additional settlement charges.

There was a permit/impact fee for $1361 (item 1303) plus a SEWWCA & Meter fee for $1264 (item 1302) plus an SSU Utilities and Meter Fee for $4569 (item 1307) plus a Utility Infrastructure fee for $1260 (item 1313) plus a few smaller fees.

The good thing was that this was all part of the asking price. I didn't pay the asking price and then have to pay another $13,000 or more at closing! The final number was all upfront but I didn't get the breakdown until the closing!

[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by BillyGrown

I understand you have a right to your own interpretation. Here is the applicable statute. The funds can be used for A-LOT of things.

https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2026/0163.31801

Looks to be about four pages more than I want to read today.

Until I get a chance, I’ll stand b my understanding that impact fees are more specific than stated.

[Altavia]

Originally Posted by tophcfa

Thanks for the explanation. If impact fees are used by Sumter County for capacity expansion requirements, such as for additional lanes or traffic control devices necessary because of growth, why won’t the County allocate impact fee resources towards improvements to Morse Blvd. north of 466? Clearly, the road was not originally designed and built for the growth that has occurred since it was built. This appears to be a perfect example of what impact fees should be used for, yet the road remains as originally build before the exponential growth.

Maybe the additional commercial development around Eastport and Middleton is moving the commercial center of gravity further south due to the commercial expansion in the south.

The residents south of 44 have less need to to clog up the roads further north.

[Goldwingnut]

Originally Posted by BillyGrown

Impact fees aren’t for the general fund, but they can be used for a host of budget items. Building infrastructure like police stations fire stations , libraries and even parks can all be done with the fees. Also the fees can be used for maintenance of all those facilities as well as many others resources. Fees can be used for all sorts of studies. They can’t be used for general salaries. Any county in Florida is permitted to set their rates as seen fit.

Originally Posted by Bill14564

Impact fees cannot be used for most of the things mentioned, at least not properly.

Impact fees can be used for many purposes is correct, but they are specific to a purpose, Road Impact fees can be used for roads only and as identified in their declaring documents. So Road Impact fees can be used for new/expanding roads but not parks. A Park impact fee can be used for parks but not roads. There are multiple impact fees implemented throughout the state, in Sumter County has only 2 Impact fees - Road impact fee and a Fire Impact fee that is levied only in the area east of I75 and west of US301 and North of SR44, the fee is to cover the cost of a new fire station for the area and will end when sufficient funded to build and equip the new station are raised.

Impact fees CANNOT be used for operating and maintenance costs, State statute are very clear about this.

Wildwood also has some impact fees that they have implemented. These fees are not applicable to the ARD of The Villages because the developer provides the recreation facilities, fire stations, wastewater treatment facilities, and the rest of the items the Impact fees are levied for by Wildwood. This is justified by the same statues as the limited assessment scope of the County Fire Impact fee described above levied by the County. This is spelled out in the Development Agreement between Wildwood and The Villages (the developer).

A lot of people have made a lot of noise about the low impact fees the developer pays as compared to other counties. There is good reason for this, The Villages (the community) is basically self contained for all of the services that other counties charge impact fees for, the developer builds and provides the services that would normally be provided by impact fees - parks, potable water, storm water, waste water, etc. There is one that isn’t levied because of The Villages demographic, School Impact fees CANNOT, 75,000+ homes and not a one (in theory) has school age children. The developer has for the past 20+ years been building schools (TVCS) as a part of the community and a significant number of the students would otherwise be going to the county schools. Let us also not forget that every home in TV pays school taxes, more that they pay in county property taxes - I and a great many others have real heartaches with this but that issue could be another massive thread here.

Over 90% of the County’s annual growth is The Villages which means that the non-Villages portion of Sumter County is growing at a very slow rate so there is little need building new facilities and having the associated impact fees to support these efforts.

[Goldwingnut]

Originally Posted by tophcfa

Thanks for the explanation. If impact fees are used by Sumter County for capacity expansion requirements, such as for additional lanes or traffic control devices necessary because of growth, why won’t the County allocate impact fee resources towards improvements to Morse Blvd. north of 466? Clearly, the road was not originally designed and built for the growth that has occurred since it was built. This appears to be a perfect example of what impact fees should be used for, yet the road remains as originally build before the exponential growth.

I was wondering how long until this one popped up. The road and traffic on Morse north of 466 has been the topic of more studies that probably any other road segment in the county, with the same conclusions each time. The traffic is within the capacity of the road, there is not sufficient traffic or potential traffic growth to warrant additional traffic control devices (lights & stop signs) for which there a specific and detailed guidelines we must follow. The only issue that continues to be identified is the golf carts on the road are not be operated properly resulting in multiple accidents of which nearly all have been identified as the golf carts operator’s fault. It’s been said dozens of times previously and I say it again, the county does not do golf cart or multi-modal paths, it has neither the responsibility, the authority, nor the resources to deal with these golf carts paths. That authority and responsibility belongs to the AAC. The only authority the county has would be to ban the operation of golf carts on that segment of the road.

So, no, the county is not going to use the limited funds collect by Road Impact fees to address an issue that is not our responsibility, no matter how much some misinformed members of the AAC want to complain and say it is the county’s responsibility. Just because someone doesn’t like the answer doesn’t make the answer wrong nor them right.

[Moderator]

Topic is Developer Impact Fees Across the State of Florida

[kingofbeer]

Originally Posted by DAVES

REALITY for ALL. FAIR? What is FAIR-all do not agree. TAXES are no at all a new issue. A major issue in the American revolution was TAXES. A COMMON, NORMAL VIEW. Others NO ME should pay.

Seems to be the most confusion and debate about amendment 3. My understanding the amendments need 60 percent to be passed. Simple math that is 6 out of ten. If, 5 out of ten voters say I do not understand this and they do not vote yes or no does that kill the bill. Half not voting you can't possibly get the required 60%. PEOPLE I wonder about people. At villager age. Have people matured enough to say I DON'T UNDERSTAND THIS and leave it blank? Or will they go ennny minny?

Many will not vote because #3 is on the reverse side of the ballot and will miss it. Personally I really don't care, because my taxes will go down while many others will not go down much because they either don't have homestead or there properties are valued close to 1 million dollars. The local governments will figure out ways to make up the lost revenue if this thing passes.

[kingofbeer]

Originally Posted by Rainger99

I just went into my closet and pulled out my closing papers. I haven't looked at them since 2021.

I had a lot of fees under additional settlement charges.

There was a permit/impact fee for $1361 (item 1303) plus a SEWWCA & Meter fee for $1264 (item 1302) plus an SSU Utilities and Meter Fee for $4569 (item 1307) plus a Utility Infrastructure fee for $1260 (item 1313) plus a few smaller fees.

The good thing was that this was all part of the asking price. I didn't pay the asking price and then have to pay another $13,000 or more at closing! The final number was all upfront but I didn't get the breakdown until the closing!

You paid the impact fees!

[DAVES]

Originally Posted by Rainger99

I just went into my closet and pulled out my closing papers. I haven't looked at them since 2021.

I had a lot of fees under additional settlement charges.

There was a permit/impact fee for $1361 (item 1303) plus a SEWWCA & Meter fee for $1264 (item 1302) plus an SSU Utilities and Meter Fee for $4569 (item 1307) plus a Utility Infrastructure fee for $1260 (item 1313) plus a few smaller fees.

The good thing was that this was all part of the asking price. I didn't pay the asking price and then have to pay another $13,000 or more at closing! The final number was all upfront but I didn't get the breakdown until the closing!

The point few read or have read.and those who have read most do not remember. Mom taught me never sign anything without reading it. We had an attorney with us.Builder atty told us we allow fifteen minutes for a closing. I told them TOUGH