Bill Text: FL S1066 | 2020 | Regular Session | Engrossed

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

---

Bill Title: Impact Fees

Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (? 3-1)

Status: (Passed) 2020-06-22 - Chapter No. 2020-58 [S1066 Detail]

Download: Florida-2020-S1066-Engrossed.html

---

       CS for CS for CS for SB 1066                     First Engrossed
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       20201066e1
       
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to impact fees; amending s. 163.31801,
    3         F.S.; prohibiting new or increased impact fees from
    4         applying to certain applications; providing that
    5         impact fee credits are assignable and transferable
    6         under certain conditions; providing an effective date.
    7          
    8  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
    9  
   10         Section 1. Section 163.31801, Florida Statutes, is amended
   11  to read:
   12         163.31801 Impact fees; short title; intent; minimum
   13  requirements; audits; challenges.—
   14         (1) This section may be cited as the “Florida Impact Fee
   15  Act.”
   16         (2) The Legislature finds that impact fees are an important
   17  source of revenue for a local government to use in funding the
   18  infrastructure necessitated by new growth. The Legislature
   19  further finds that impact fees are an outgrowth of the home rule
   20  power of a local government to provide certain services within
   21  its jurisdiction. Due to the growth of impact fee collections
   22  and local governments’ reliance on impact fees, it is the intent
   23  of the Legislature to ensure that, when a county or municipality
   24  adopts an impact fee by ordinance or a special district adopts
   25  an impact fee by resolution, the governing authority complies
   26  with this section.
   27         (3) At a minimum, an impact fee adopted by ordinance of a
   28  county or municipality or by resolution of a special district
   29  must satisfy all of the following conditions:
   30         (a) The calculation of the impact fee must be based on the
   31  most recent and localized data.
   32         (b) The local government must provide for accounting and
   33  reporting of impact fee collections and expenditures. If a local
   34  governmental entity imposes an impact fee to address its
   35  infrastructure needs, the entity must account for the revenues
   36  and expenditures of such impact fee in a separate accounting
   37  fund.
   38         (c) Administrative charges for the collection of impact
   39  fees must be limited to actual costs.
   40         (d) The local government must provide notice not less than
   41  90 days before the effective date of an ordinance or resolution
   42  imposing a new or increased impact fee. A county or municipality
   43  is not required to wait 90 days to decrease, suspend, or
   44  eliminate an impact fee. Unless the result is to reduce the
   45  total mitigation costs or impact fees imposed on an applicant,
   46  new or increased impact fees may not apply to current or pending
   47  permit applications submitted before the effective date of an
   48  ordinance or resolution imposing a new or increased impact fee.
   49         (e) Collection of the impact fee may not be required to
   50  occur earlier than the date of issuance of the building permit
   51  for the property that is subject to the fee.
   52         (f) The impact fee must be proportional and reasonably
   53  connected to, or have a rational nexus with, the need for
   54  additional capital facilities and the increased impact generated
   55  by the new residential or commercial construction.
   56         (g) The impact fee must be proportional and reasonably
   57  connected to, or have a rational nexus with, the expenditures of
   58  the funds collected and the benefits accruing to the new
   59  residential or nonresidential construction.
   60         (h) The local government must specifically earmark funds
   61  collected under the impact fee for use in acquiring,
   62  constructing, or improving capital facilities to benefit new
   63  users.
   64         (i) Revenues generated by the impact fee may not be used,
   65  in whole or in part, to pay existing debt or for previously
   66  approved projects unless the expenditure is reasonably connected
   67  to, or has a rational nexus with, the increased impact generated
   68  by the new residential or nonresidential construction.
   69         (4) Notwithstanding any charter provision, comprehensive
   70  plan policy, ordinance, or resolution, the local government must
   71  credit against the collection of the impact fee any
   72  contribution, whether identified in a proportionate share
   73  agreement or other form of exaction, related to public education
   74  facilities, including land dedication, site planning and design,
   75  or construction. Any contribution must be applied to reduce any
   76  education-based impact fees on a dollar-for-dollar basis at fair
   77  market value.
   78         (5) If a local government increases its impact fee rates,
   79  the holder of any impact fee credits, whether such credits are
   80  granted under s. 163.3180, s. 380.06, or otherwise, which were
   81  in existence before the increase, is entitled to the full
   82  benefit of the intensity or density prepaid by the credit
   83  balance as of the date it was first established. This subsection
   84  shall operate prospectively and not retrospectively.
   85         (6) Audits of financial statements of local governmental
   86  entities and district school boards which are performed by a
   87  certified public accountant pursuant to s. 218.39 and submitted
   88  to the Auditor General must include an affidavit signed by the
   89  chief financial officer of the local governmental entity or
   90  district school board stating that the local governmental entity
   91  or district school board has complied with this section.
   92         (7) In any action challenging an impact fee or the
   93  government’s failure to provide required dollar-for-dollar
   94  credits for the payment of impact fees as provided in s.
   95  163.3180(6)(h)2.b., the government has the burden of proving by
   96  a preponderance of the evidence that the imposition or amount of
   97  the fee or credit meets the requirements of state legal
   98  precedent and this section. The court may not use a deferential
   99  standard for the benefit of the government.
  100         (8) Impact fee credits are assignable and transferable at
  101  any time after establishment from one development or parcel to
  102  any other that is within the same impact fee zone or impact fee
  103  district or that is within an adjoining impact fee zone or
  104  impact fee district within the same local government
  105  jurisdiction and receives benefits from the improvement or
  106  contribution that generated the credits.
  107         (9)(8) A county, municipality, or special district may
  108  provide an exception or waiver for an impact fee for the
  109  development or construction of housing that is affordable, as
  110  defined in s. 420.9071. If a county, municipality, or special
  111  district provides such an exception or waiver, it is not
  112  required to use any revenues to offset the impact.
  113         (10)(9) This section does not apply to water and sewer
  114  connection fees.
  115         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2020.