- July 10, 2025
Editor's note: This story was updated after the June 3 Palm Coast City Council meeting.
Raising Palm Coast’s transportation, fire service and parks and recreation impact fees will likely directly effect new homebuyers in the city. But will it also impact current homeowners and their property taxes?
Former Florida Rep. Paul Renner says yes, it will.
“It’s not a very efficient way to raise money,” Renner said.
The impact of impact fee increases on the Palm Coast community was the hot topic debated on a special “Free For All” talk show at WNZF Radio on June 2. Hosted by David Ayres and Observer publisher Brian McMillan, the show featured Renner, Vice Mayor Theresa Carli Pontieri, Annamaria Long, executive officer at the Flagler Home Builders Association, Robbie Barrick, owner of Integrity Homes and FHBA president, and real estate agent Toby Tobin.
The Palm Coast City Council is considering increasing the three different impact fees between 70-117% and cast its first vote on the increases at its June 3 business meeting.
The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. at City Hall.
Impact fees are the fees developers pay to a municipality that are intended to help the city mitigate the impact of new growth on city services. The fee, according to Florida State Statutes, can only be increased a maximum of 50% over a four-year period, once every four years.
Three studies performed by NUE Urban Concepts and Raftelis on the impact fees originally recommended the council double the rates. But after six hours of discussion and tweaking, the council lowered the overall increases for the transportation and parks and recreation, though the rates were still over the 50% statutory threshold.
The fire service fees were left as recommended.
Renner said “dollar for dollar,” impact fees are passed on to the new homeowners, “artificially” increasing the property’s cost. That higher home value then likewise will increase the property assessments of surrounding homes, eventually leading to current homeowners paying more in property taxes, he said.
Long and Barrick, said they agree the city needs to increase its impact fees – but at the 50% legal statutory cap, Long said.
The studies state Palm Coast’s projected growth rate of twice that of Florida’s – growing 36% between 2014 and 2024, to Florida’s 18% in the same period – and the 80% inflation increase to construction costs over the last six years qualify for extraordinary circumstances. Long argued that Palm Coast was always expected to grow rapidly, referencing a 2020 study on impact fees in Palm Coast.
If the growth is expected, she said, it can’t be considered extraordinary.
Barrick said the studies are full of holes and do not show the extraordinary circumstances necessary.
“This study is not valid in my eyes,” he said. “This study has got holes all in it, it’s like Swiss cheese.”
While the projected population growth alone would not be enough to qualify as extraordinary circumstances, it is when considered in combination of the increased costs to do work, Pontieri said.
Current Palm Coast residents will also feel the effects if the fees aren’t increased enough, either, she said. According to the recreation impact fee studies, she said, increasing the fire service fees just 50% would mean the city would need to recoup $3.9 million over 10 years from current residents to make up the difference.
“You're just moving it from one column to the other,” she said. “We know we've got expansion related costs. And expansion related costs should weigh on the shoulders of the people that are coming in more so than the people that are already here.”
Ultimately, she said, her and her fellow council members’ jobs are to balance the many needs across Palm Coast, including trying to diversify revenue so the city can decrease property tax revenue.
Philosophically, Pontieri said she doesn’t believe anyone should pay property taxes on land they already own. She said she would rather have “user fees” – like a sales tax or similar – to fund programs.
Renner agreed. He said a sales tax – which exempt necessary items likes groceries and diapers – would allow the consumer to better control how much they are paying by how much they choose to spend.
Such user fees though, have also historically received strong push back from residents. In 2024, Palm Coast rejected a franchise fee initiative with Florida Power & Light that would become an alternative revenue source for the city because of the pushback from residents. Likewise, a sales tax to fund beach renourishment that the Flagler County Commission is currently considering has also received opposition from residents.
For now, Pontieri said, the city does not have another revenue source it can turn to to address its issues.
“We have some serious infrastructure [issues]. We're tapped out,” she said. “There's nowhere else to go.”
