Villages Kahuna |
06-06-2021 04:03 PM |
An impact fee is typically a one-time payment imposed by a local government on a property developer or builder. The fee is used to offset the financial impact a new development places on the public infrastructure. Public infrastructure includes roads, schools, parks, recreational facilities, water and sewerage, expanded police and fire service and maintenance of those types of facilities.
In The Villages the cost of building such infrastructure for use by residential homeowners is typically financed by the issuance of a municipal bond. In TV that bond is then divided equally among the homes built in an area and becomes an obligation of the homeowners to repay and pay interest and fees on their portion of the bond.
To the extent that the proceeds from the bond which is an obligation of the homeowners in an area aren’t sufficient for the construction of required broader non-residential roads and infrastructure, the local government can assess an impact fee on the Developer to pay for the broader “non-residential” infrastructure such as major roads, police and fire stations, schools, public maintenance facilities, etc.
It was an executive of tithe Developer’s company who is also a state representative who sponsored a state-wide bill to set limits on the amount of impact fees local governments can assess against developers. In the current situation, the Sumter County commissioners also rolled back a 25% property tax increase against ALL homeowners in Sumter County that would have paid for the broader infrastructure in the southern end of The Villages required by the Developer to continue to build homes and commercial real estate in that part of the county.
So at this point the property tax rollback and the bill limiting impact fees has resulted in a shortfall of funding for non-residential infrastructure that the Developer says is needed to continue development in the south end of The Villages and Sumter County.
The Developer is trying different ways to get Sumter County to pay for new infrastructure (with funding from increased property taxes on homeowners). The county commissioners have promised the homeowners in the county that they won’t tax them to pay for the infrastructure the Developer says is required.
Stay tuned for who’s going to pay for the unfunded cost of the required roads and infrastructure. The arguments and debate will be interesting. Whatever you do, don’t rely on the descriptions of the alternatives and who should assume increased obligations on what you read in The Daily Sun. The Developer owns the paper so all you’ll get is the Developer’s view of what’s needed and who should pay for it.
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