Growth, development and impact fees
Editor, The Sun:
I feel compelled to raise my voice again regarding the subjects of impact fees and the perceived runaway growth in our county, let’s do growth first. I have justly been accused of getting into the weeds early and often so let’s jump right in with a few, simple, “inconvenient truths” that dispel the no more growth arguments that keep popping back up every election cycle.
First, more than 65% of our county is owned by the state or federal government and will NEVER be developed, period. And 85% of our coastline belongs to the federal government – Won’t Be Touched.
These two facts are a major reason why I live here; I love the wilderness and know it will always be with us. A large part of the remaining 35% is designated as wetland and will also not be developed so we are probably looking at a scenario of about 20 to 25% of the county being developed. I personally find that to be acceptable and will be necessary if we want our community too more fully serve our residents – think medical trauma center and maybe a Home Depot, etc.
Publix did not come as a public service to us, they came because there were enough people here to support their business plan and, I promise you, medical trauma centers also have business plans that require a certain number of people so they are profitable. So we could, in a few years, have the best of both worlds if we will continue to support the growth policies that are called for in our comprehensive plan.
On to Impact Fees and Development!
The no growth element in our community also wants you to believe that developers are foisting financial burdens on the county, and our citizens, while walking away with gobs of money. Full disclosure here, I am a developer also, not too intense, but a little here and there!
When we develop property we pay for cultural resource, transportation, school accessibility, and stormwater studies just to find out if a development is feasible, and we pay fees to the county which pays for staff time to review our proposal. Property Development entails lots of risk from the administrative side and financing side. But regarding impact fees and paying our way, here are a couple more “inconvenient truths” you won’t hear from the no growth side. We, as developers, pay for all the new roadways, water systems, stormwater systems, electrical systems, and sewer systems including lift stations all built to county andstate specifications. We hopefully recoup our costs when we sell lots, typically to a builder. When the builder pulls his building permit he pays a sewer hook-up fee and a water connection fee, these fees are for maintaining the distribution systems and plant, in the county and is, for lack of a better word, an IMPACT FEE. There I said it, we already pay them! Funds that are actually labeled Impact Fees are hard to spend because they have to be spent in the area they were collected in and within a certain amount of time – try to make that work with a Florida Department of Transportation funding timeline!
In closing please know that our comp plan was a joint effort between citizens, the county, and the state. It is not easy to change and must be adhered to by our commissioners. When I see and hear comments about how our commissioners did this or that, typically most of them are just following the rules, that we helped set, keeping our tax dollars out of court and avoiding getting in trouble with the state which could affect funding we get from the state.
We can propose changes to the plan but it is a long and expensive process (think tax dollars) so be careful what you ask for!
Our country was founded and has prospered following the rules of law, I applaud most of our current commissioners for doing just that! Defending Wakulla!
John Shuff
Crawfordville