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Highlands Today

11 Will Comprise Impact Fee Panel

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By Jim  Konkoly | Highlands Today

Published: February 6, 2008

Updated: 02/06/2008 01:39 pm

SEBRING — Eleven people will be appointed to Highlands County's first Impact Fees Review Committee.

Patterned after a similar advisory committee in Polk County, this committee will make recommendations to the county commissioners on whether the controversial impact fees should be raised, lowered, or kept the same.

Commissioners approved the creation and form of this committee, as proposed by Commissioner Don Bates. The commissioners then agreed on the 11 special interests that will have a representative on this committee.
Those 11 special-interest slots are:
Retail business;
Banking;
Homeowners association;
Environmental community;
The Highlands County Builders Association;
Real estate sales;
Public education;
Agriculture industry;
Municipalities;
Lodging industry; and
Developers.
Four of the commissioners will appoint two members each while Commissioner Edgar Stokes, as chairman this year, will appoint three members.

Bates took Polk County's impact fees review committee as a model, tweaked it for this county and asked his fellow county commissioners to approve it, which they did Tuesday.

Commissioner Barbara Stewart wanted another week to determine how many categories of special interests should have a seat on this committee. Bates, though, pushed for and got unanimous support to create the committee on Tuesday.

"I think we ought to step up and say 11 categories is enough" so that the committee can be named and begin meeting as soon as possible, Bates said.

Commissioners gave the committee three duties:

Make recommendations on the impact fees schedule;
Review the impact fees collected and the expenditures made with those fees; and
Issue an annual report that includes recommendations on whether the commissioners should lower or raise impact fees or keep them the same. This report must be made four weeks before the commissioners begin discussions on setting impact fees for the next year.

Under state law, the county commissioners must adopt impact fees by Dec. 1 that will take effect starting on Jan. 1 of the next year.

John Drennan, a county resident, asked commissioners, "Couldn't we have a couple regular citizens on this (committee)?"

Two weeks earlier, when commissioners first discussed this committee, Stewart talked about appointing several "informed and involved citizens" in addition to representatives of various special interests.

Stewart responded to Drennan's question by saying the public's interests will be represented by committee members representing public education, the environment, municipalities and homeowners.
Commissioners could name people to the new committee as early as their next meeting on Feb. 12.

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