Bricklemyer Smolker & Bolves, p.a.

“Property rights. Every American citizen values these rights and regards their protection as a basic premise upon which our constitutional democracy is founded.”

DRAMATIC INCREASES PROPOSED IN HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY IMPACT FEES

By Keith W. Bricklemyer

On September 8, 1999, the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners will conduct a workshop to consider, among other things, recommendations from a Transportation Impact Fee Study by University of South Florida’s Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR) that could result in increases of more than 300% by the year 2002. Such increases, when added to the County’s extraordinarily high water and sewer fees, would be another major blow to the ability of landowners to successfully compete with other jurisdictions for economic development opportunities.

The CUTR study analyzes the structure of the County’s impact fee formula and the assumptions regarding the variables in the formula. For example, one recommended structural change is to eliminate the credit for gas taxes in the formula based on the assumption that the fee assessed represents less than a full recovery of the costs associated with the development being assessed. With regard to the variables in the formula, the study determined that construction cost assumptions per lane-miles of urban roadway should be increased from $664,062 to $2,716,679, and that right of way costs per lane-mile should be increased from $228,017 to $1,418,689. At a recent information meeting with County staff and CUTR representatives, the County was identified as the source of these "updated values," and it was revealed that the values had not been compared to the costs from other agencies or jurisdictions.

One important question not addressed by the study is whether impact fees should be raised before the County assesses all the gas taxes it has the authority to assess to all users of our roadways. Make your views known to the Commissioners prior to the September 8 workshop.