- April 24, 2024
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Citing concerns with growth, the Volusia County School Board voted 4-1 on Tuesday, Nov. 15, to increase the school district's impact fees on new construction, a change that hasn't occurred since 2013.
Impact fees will now cost $7,022.70 for single-family homes, $3,728.95 for multifamily; and $1,415.25 for mobile homes, the latter of which is a reduction as previously, all residential uses paid a $2,942 impact fee. This change will be effective 90 days from the board's adoption.
The school district uses impact fees to add classrooms, build new schools and renovate existing schools. A presentation showed 14 projects in the district's five-year work program that are eligible to be funded through impact fees. Among them was the creation of a master plan for a new Tomoka Elementary.
"We are behind, actually, due to the growth that we have had in Volusia County," School Board member Jamie Haynes said. "And ideally, we should use that money so that we don't have to use portables and things like that."
School Board member Linda Cuthbert was the lone vote against the increases. She felt the impact fee increases for single-family homes — which is increasing by over $4,000 — was too expensive. She would have supported an increase that was around $1,500 less, and had advocated for such an increase during the board's workshop earlier in the day.
The Nov. 15 meeting was also Cuthbert's last, as the District 5 representative did not run for reelection. Cuthbert will be succeeded by Jessie Thompson.
At the workshop, the board and representatives from the district's negotiated rulemaking committee, which is made up of district staff and members of the Volusia Building Industry Association, discussed the impact fees. Despite the committee having met seven times between November 2021 and October 2022, the members did not present a recommendation to the board, since no consensus was reached.
District staff on the committee recommended adopting the new fee at 100% using a tiered schedule, but expressed a willingness to negotiate to 75% of the study's recommended fee. Meanwhile, VBIA representatives didn't feel any of the impact fee increases were appropriate, but were willing to negotiate a single fee between $3,500 to $4,000, something district staff disagreed with.
Due to House Bill 337, impact fees cannot be increased more than once every four years, and cannot be increased by over 50%. But because a study was done to show extraordinary circumstances within the last 12 months, the board can override the 50% increase cap. The board chose to adopt the fee at 85% of the study's recommendations. Cuthbert had suggested adopting the fee at 65%.
"Yes, we inherited this, but at some point, we've got to do what's right," School Board Chair Ruben Colon said during the workshop. "And we know that growth is happening and what I hear the most in my district is, 'We have all these new houses going up, what are we doing for schools? The schools are crowded. So I can't in good faith say, 'let's do the 65%."
Colon said he felt the VBIA turning down the adoption of 75% of the study's recommended fees was "crazy," as he considered that to be a reasonable compromise. He said he didn't think the board, the district and the VBIA would ever come to terms and expects a litigation for the impact fees regardless.
"I will point out, this is not on current residents," he said. "This is on growth. This is new people coming to our area, and we have a growth problem in Volusia County — there's no question about that. Infrastructure is not there, and I would be hard-pressed to not support things that would put the infrastructure in place, and I would be hard-pressed to continue that pattern of kicking the can down the road in hopes that someday we can do what is right."
