that the developer swallows addition ----NO

puts it on final house purchase price.---YES

The only difference is that those who purchase a NEW home pays the impact fees instead of spreading it out among all the county taxpayers.

Might seem fair, but consider this: All county residents might benefit from new roads, new fire stations and police presence, as well as the jobs created in the construction, service, and retail industries. It's not as clear cut as the poster previously known as "the avocado" would have everyone believe.

Those new roads would not have even been considered if it were not for the new development. All the work to create those new roads (Buena Vista extension and many others) and modify or improve existing roads (470, Morse, etc) was done only because it was needed to support the new development. Sure, anyone can use those roads now but the primary reason anyone would want to use the new roads is to access the new development. The new development had an impact on the road infrastructure - therefore a road impact fee.

That number might be a bit high. 3,000 homes at even $500K is only $1.5B.

Homeowners pay close to 100% of the cost of roads through property tax and fuel tax today. My property taxes increased a few years ago in order to pay for the roads supporting development south of 44. What is my "fair share" of those roads?

If you are referring to homeowners south of 44 paying for roads south of 44 that are used to access businesses south of 44 then that is exactly how road impact fees are supposed to be designed with the understanding that businesses pay impact fees as well. The homeowners south of 44 are not paying more than their fare share. Because existing road impact fees were low they are not even paying up to their fare share. This was part of the argument against the large tax increase a few years ago and the increase road impact fees shortly after that were blocked by a new State law.

The fees should be calculated to determine the impact not only of the new homes but also of the new businesses. Permits for new business properties are assessed impact fees as well as schools and churches. Any new construction that will cause more traffic and have an impact on the road infrastructure pays a road impact fee based on the anticipated magnitude of that impact. Homeowners don't pay more than their fare share, they pay a share that is calculated to be proportional to their anticipated usage.

I haven't read the new study yet but let's assume the calculations are accurate and fair/defensible. Note that the new rates apply to permits issued after January 1, 2025 and are phased in over four years. Together, this means that it won't be until after January 1, 2028 that a new home/business/church/school/etc is assessed an impact fee that accurately represents the true impact it will have on roadways. Until then, everyone is paying less than their fare share EXCEPT for existing county residents and businesses who will make up the difference in their property taxes.

Valid point, but there has to be some acceptable middle ground that doesn't come down to simply raising all our property taxes again.

Sumter County imposes road impact fees bizarrely. Why is it less in a retirement community? Don't opine that it is because the houses are closer as there is no requirement for spacing of homes to be a retirement community. If you want to base it on spacing, then charge based on frontage.

Could the different charge be a sweetheart deal for the builders of retirement communities? Perish the thought.

Lake County very sensibly charges a higher fee for a larger home.

Sumter has a road impact fee for a Hardware/Paint store of 472/sq ft But for a 24 hr convenience market, it is 22,333 / sq ft. A Supermarket is 6152 /sqft

Less in a retirement community: Fewer/no children requiring transportation to schools and events, older drivers making fewer trips

Sweetheart deal: I wouldn't bet against it

Lake county: How is my impact on the infrastructure greater if I live in a larger house? Bigger house -> bigger bank account -> more dining out -> more trips -> more impact??

Those numbers are per 1,000 sqft. Those numbers *should* be calculated based on the number of trips made to the store by customers, employees, and deliveries. Far more trips to the 24 hour convenience store than to the paint store.

Here are the road impact fees that have been in place since Oct 2020. The Consumer Price Index in Oct 2020 was 260. It is now 315, an increase of 21%. But the impact fee increase is only 12% falling well behind the inflation rate. Does anything think the cost of road construction is running behind the inflation rate?
From the end of 2020 just through the first quarter of 2023 the road construction cost increased 53.8%


210 Single Family (Detached) Du $2,666 increased to 2999 an increase of 12%
220 Multi-Family Housing (Low-Rise, 1-2 floors) Du $1,911 to 2152
221 Multi-Family Housing (Mid-Rise, 3-10 floors) Du $1,419 to 1596
222 Multi-Family Housing (High-Rise, >10 floors) Du $1,166
240 Mobile Home Park Du $979 to 1101
251 Retirement Community (detached) Du $972 increased to 1094
252 Retirement Community (attached) Du $552 increased to 621

Billionaires don’t become billionaires by paying for stuff they pass that on to someone else. It’s alway about the money and how much can be squeezed. Federal state county governments same, more than take in the more they can squeeze into their pockets. Nothing has changed since first man claimed land from others.

I would not be surprised if the very fact there is a discount for "in a retirement community" that provides a lower than otherwise fee is entirely due to the lobbying muscle and largesse of The Developer on their (and our) behalf. I, for one, am glad of it and appreciative - if it weren't for them we may very well be paying the counties entire impact fee.

Way better than throwing another 25% property tax increase at long time existing homeowners trying to get by on a fixed income.

Which goes away as that undeveloped land is turned into thousands of tax paying homes and businesses. Our milage rate is actually lower than 10 years ago.

There is a lot of confusion with this. There is a lower number for millage rate, the millage rate that the state considers to be neither an increase or a decrease, the actual amount that we pay, and effects of inflation on the cost of running a government. Pick your number and you can argue that we are worse off or much better off than we were 10 years ago.

Our millage rate might actually be lower but our assessed values are much higher leading to something close to a net zero change. If it were not for the 30% property tax increase in 19-20, our millage rate would be even lower today.

EDIT: If the 30% increase had not happened and all else remained the same (not likely) then our millage rate would be about 3.66 today rather than 4.89. That would be $366 less on a home with a taxable value of $300K.

The last time we had a true property tax decrease was the 21-22 budget when it decreased 1.4%.

Who cares what the millage rate is? What matters is the amount on the check one has to write. That amount is significantly higher than it was 10 years ago (our is up approximately 75% with no homestead exemption).

So wrong. So very, very WRONG.

My county tax, 2014, on an assessed value of $403,900 was $2302
My county tax, 2024, on an assessed value of $474,510 is $2076

So you're right---it's the amount of the check you write that counts.

PS: that's a 10 year DECREASE in county tax of 9.8%, so I doubt our only tax decrease was 1.4% a few years ago.

Doubt all you want but those are the numbers from the final budgets over the years starting in 17-18.

Are you using assessed value or taxable value? Is there a substantial SoH benefit helping the bottom line? Without the SoH benefit, I would be paying very nearly the same amount I did in the 19-20 tax year when the increase hit.

Doesn't matter, that's built into the milage rate. The bottom line is I paid $226 real dollars less than in 2014