- April 22, 2024
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The school district says it’s facing “extraordinary circumstances” warranting a dramatic increase in impact fees — the one-time fees paid by developers to local governments to offset their effect on government infrastructure — so that it can build more schools to deal with expected overcrowding.
If the Flagler County Commission approves the School Board’s proposal, impact fees on single-family homes would rise from $3,600 to $7,175, fees on multi-family homes would rise from $931 to $1,774, and fees on mobile homes would rise from from $1,066 to $5,279.
“We’re just trying to be so mindful and cognizant of creating that great school district that is prepared for the growth,” Flagler Schools Superintendent Cathy Mittelstadt told the County Commission at a Sept. 14 commission workshop.
But commissioners weren’t convinced by the school district’s entreaties or its staff members’ predictions of precipitous growth in school enrollment.
The district is predicting a student population growth of 23.3% over the next 10 years, basing that number on a University of Florida study.
To get around a state law that would limit impact fees to a 50% increase spread over four years, the school district would have to show “extraordinary circumstances.”
Members of the public who spoke at the meeting didn’t think the district’s circumstances should be described that way.
“The only extraordinary circumstance I’ve heard here tonight is that we haven’t paid any attention and we didn’t foresee growth in Flagler County,” Flagler Home Builders Association President Darin Dahl said during the workshop’s public comment period. “... Flagler County’s been one of the fastest-growing counties in the state of Florida and in the nation since I moved here in 1977.”
County commissioners questioned why the district hadn’t raised its impact fees gradually.
But County Commissioner Andy Dance, who’d previously served on the School Board, said the district has been dealing with the information available.
“They’ve gone through the process, they’ve analyzed all the data,” he said.
As to the accusation that the school district had dropped the ball by going for 17 years without altering its impact fees, Dance said, the county could be accused of the same thing: It was scheduled, later the same day, to consider raising its own impact fees, and hadn’t raised its transportation impact fees in eight years.
“I think the hardest thing to wrap your head around is the stagnant growth for a while in the teens, and ... now, projections show more students coming,” Dance said. “But it’s not unlike what I think happened early in the 2000s: We went through a boom here in the district where the students followed the workforce, and it seems to be ... beginning again.”
The commission will vote on the proposed increase during a future business meeting.
