In May 2015, The The Hernando County Board of County Commissioners approved an effective date of March 1, 2016 to end the suspension of the Educational Facility Impact Fee. On January 26, 2016, the Board of County Commissioners voted unanimously for a savings clause to be added to the ordinance that exempts completed building permits accepted for filing and bona fide construction contracts entered into prior to March 1, 2016.
Impact fees will affect the cost of building single family residential homes. Each single family home will be assessed $2133 per unit. This number is 50% less than the original requested amount. In addition to the school impact fee, the roads impact fee will be $1269 for a residential home, effective March 1, 2016. The impact fees currently in effect cover fire, parks, EMS, jail, buildings and law and amount to $1312.
The Educational Impact Fee will be used to pay debts and improve existing programs within the Hernando County School System. At a meeting in January 2015, Pianta explained, explained how schools can spend the money gained from impact fees saying that fees can be used to accommodate growth which would include capital improvements, building, transportation and ancillary facility costs which could include furniture, technology or debt payment caused by growth. Bonded improvements with impact fees could be used to pay the debt.
Vice Chairman Rowden stated, ‘I would like the schools to receive more but we need to get this going.’
In response to criticism that the impact fees are still too low during citizen comments, Commissioner Holcomb stated, “We have to be attractive for them [new home builders] to move to this county. We have to be economically attractive for the people to buy a house, on an empty lot on the east side and buy acreage and build a dream home.”