By Bryan Nelson
Impact fees charged by counties and cities is the method for growth (new development) to pay for the new infrastructure needed to support a thriving community.
These impact fees are levied on all new construction, including residential, commercial and industrial to pay for new water, wastewater, reclaimed water, police, fire, recreation and roads that are needed to support the new jobs and residents moving into the jurisdiction.
At the City of Apopka and all other Central Florida municipalities, we are constantly looking at the impact fee charged to make sure that we are charging an adequate rate for the improvements needed to meet the demand. State law demands that we charge an appropriate impact fee rate but not an excessive rate, and the city must hire consultants to verify that the rate we are charging is not excessive.
Over a decade ago, new roads and repaving were covered in large part by the gas tax that you pay at the pump, and these dollars supported state, county and local roads.
In the last decade, cars and trucks have become more fuel efficient and their MPG has increased by over 20%, which translates into 20% more cars on the road paying the same amount of gas tax.
If you take into account the approximate 10% of EV cars on the road today, the gas tax is not coming close to covering the cost to maintain and improve our roads.
To make up that difference, the city continues to supplement the streets budget with more general tax funds to help pay for the critical road improvements and repaving.
On July 1, 2023, the city’s transportation impact fee increased from $2,178 for multi-family units to $4,829 to keep up with the increased cost of road improvements.
Southwick Commons, an affordable housing complex currently being built within Apopka city limits, paid a total of $418,176 in transportation impact fees for the 192 units under the old rate to help with traffic congestion in the southeast side of town.
The two new affordable housing complexes being built just outside of the city limits on Marden Road and Plymouth Sorrento Road had their transportation impact fees of $4,604,347 waived by the Orange County Commission. The Orange County Board of County Commissioners voted to waive transportation impact fees for qualified affordable housing projects.
The county transportation impact fee waived is based on its urban/suburban transportation impact fee. These two county projects impact city residents that use Plymouth Sorento, Marden and Apopka-Ocoee roads.
Transportation impact fees are a critical funding source for expanding road capacity but cannot be used for general maintenance.
It is critical that our state and local governments work together to make sure that we have the funding to maintain and improve our state and local roads to provide the necessary transportation infrastructure needed for residents.
