Florida Senate - 2018                              CS for SB 324
       
       
        
       By the Committee on Community Affairs; and Senator Young
       
       
       
       
       
       578-01794-18                                           2018324c1
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to impact fees; amending s. 163.31801,
    3         F.S.; revising the minimum requirements for impact
    4         fees; providing an effective date.
    5          
    6  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
    7  
    8         Section 1. Section 163.31801, Florida Statutes, is amended
    9  to read:
   10         163.31801 Impact fees; short title; intent; minimum
   11  requirements; audits; challenges definitions; ordinances levying
   12  impact fees.—
   13         (1) This section may be cited as the “Florida Impact Fee
   14  Act.”
   15         (2) The Legislature finds that impact fees are an important
   16  source of revenue for a local government to use in funding the
   17  infrastructure necessitated by new growth. The Legislature
   18  further finds that impact fees are an outgrowth of the home rule
   19  power of a local government to provide certain services within
   20  its jurisdiction. Due to the growth of impact fee collections
   21  and local governments’ reliance on impact fees, it is the intent
   22  of the Legislature to ensure that, when a county or municipality
   23  adopts an impact fee by ordinance or a special district adopts
   24  an impact fee by resolution, the governing authority complies
   25  with this section.
   26         (3) At a minimum, impact fees An impact fee adopted by
   27  ordinance of a county or municipality or by resolution of a
   28  special district must, at minimum satisfy the following
   29  conditions:
   30         (a) Require that The calculation of the impact fees must
   31  fee be based on the 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 shall account for the revenues
   36  and expenditures of such impact fee in a separate accounting
   37  fund.
   38         (c) Limit Administrative charges for the collection of
   39  impact fees must be limited to actual costs.
   40         (d) Require that Notice must be provided no less than 90
   41  days before the effective date of an ordinance or resolution
   42  imposing a new or increased impact fees fee. A county or
   43  municipality is not required to wait 90 days to decrease,
   44  suspend, or eliminate an impact fees fee.
   45         (e) Collection of the impact fees may not occur earlier
   46  than the issuance of the building permit for the property that
   47  is subject to the fee.
   48         (f) The impact fee must be reasonably connected to, or have
   49  a rational nexus with, the need for additional capital
   50  facilities and the increased impact generated by the new
   51  residential or commercial construction.
   52         (g) The impact fee must be reasonably connected to, or have
   53  a rational nexus with, the expenditures of the funds collected
   54  and the benefits accruing to the new residential or commercial
   55  construction.
   56         (h) The local government must specifically earmark funds
   57  collected by the impact fees for use in acquiring capital
   58  facilities to benefit the new residents.
   59         (i) The collection or expenditure of the impact fee
   60  revenues may not be used, in whole or part, to pay existing debt
   61  or be used for prior approved projects unless the expenditure is
   62  reasonably connected to, or has a rational nexus with, the
   63  increased impact generated by the new residential or commercial
   64  construction.
   65         (4) Audits of financial statements of local governmental
   66  entities and district school boards which are performed by a
   67  certified public accountant pursuant to s. 218.39 and submitted
   68  to the Auditor General must include an affidavit signed by the
   69  chief financial officer of the local governmental entity or
   70  district school board stating that the local governmental entity
   71  or district school board has complied with this section.
   72         (5) In any action challenging an impact fee, the government
   73  has the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence
   74  that the imposition or amount of the fee meets the requirements
   75  of state legal precedent or this section. The court may not use
   76  a deferential standard.
   77         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2018.