A lawmaker’s updated bill would make impact fee limits retroactive to Jan. 1.
The change to the bill cosponsored by Rep. Brett Hage, R-The Villages, would seem to paint into a corner a trio of Sumter County Commissioners trying to raise impact fees on builders. Impact fees were a key issue in last year’s elections, when the then-challengers ousted incumbent commissioners over a a 25 percent property tax rate increase in 2019.
The stage is set for a showdown on impact fees when the Sumter County Commission meets at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Everglades Recreation Center in The Villages.
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House Bill 377 and Senate Bill 750 would limit impact fee increases by local governments to 3 percent a year. Hage, whose disclosure form showed he’s earning a six-figure salary from The Villages, has been championing the bill. The Villages is vehemently opposed to raising impact fees and has been using the Developer-owned Daily Sun to beat back the proposal and assail the character of Commissioners Craig Estep, Oren Miller and Gary Search, all three of whom are residents of The Villages.
A 3 percent impact fee hike means The Villages would pay about $1,000 for each single-family detached home, up less than $30 from the current rate of $972.
Last month, commissioners voted 4-1 to reject an agreement proposed by The Villages to raise fees by 40 percent to $1,372 per home. The agreement would have allowed the county to raise fees only on The Villages development and not other businesses.
Commissioners said the amount was too low and it was substantially less than the $2,430 per home recommended in a 2019 study.
