Florida Senate - 2018                       CS for CS for SB 324
       
       
        
       By the Committees on Appropriations; and Community Affairs; and
       Senator Young
       
       
       
       
       576-03814-18                                           2018324c2
    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; prohibiting the application of impact fee
    5         provisions to water and sewer connection fees;
    6         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 definitions; ordinances levying
   14  impact fees.—
   15         (1) This section may be cited as the “Florida Impact Fee
   16  Act.”
   17         (2) The Legislature finds that impact fees are an important
   18  source of revenue for a local government to use in funding the
   19  infrastructure necessitated by new growth. The Legislature
   20  further finds that impact fees are an outgrowth of the home rule
   21  power of a local government to provide certain services within
   22  its jurisdiction. Due to the growth of impact fee collections
   23  and local governments’ reliance on impact fees, it is the intent
   24  of the Legislature to ensure that, when a county or municipality
   25  adopts an impact fee by ordinance or a special district adopts
   26  an impact fee by resolution, the governing authority complies
   27  with this section.
   28         (3) At a minimum, impact fees An impact fee adopted by
   29  ordinance of a county or municipality or by resolution of a
   30  special district must, at minimum satisfy the following
   31  conditions:
   32         (a) Require that The calculation of the impact fees must
   33  fee be based on the most recent and localized data.
   34         (b) The local government must provide for accounting and
   35  reporting of impact fee collections and expenditures. If a local
   36  governmental entity imposes an impact fee to address its
   37  infrastructure needs, the entity shall account for the revenues
   38  and expenditures of such impact fee in a separate accounting
   39  fund.
   40         (c) Limit Administrative charges for the collection of
   41  impact fees must be limited to actual costs.
   42         (d) Require that Notice must be provided no less than 90
   43  days before the effective date of an ordinance or resolution
   44  imposing a new or increased impact fees fee. A county or
   45  municipality is not required to wait 90 days to decrease,
   46  suspend, or eliminate an impact fees fee.
   47         (e) Collection of the impact fees may not be required to
   48  occur earlier than the issuance of the building permit for the
   49  property that is subject to the fee.
   50         (f) The impact fees must be reasonably connected to, or
   51  have a rational nexus with, the need for additional capital
   52  facilities and the increased impact generated by the new
   53  residential or commercial construction.
   54         (g) The impact fees must be reasonably connected to, or
   55  have a rational nexus with, the expenditures of the funds
   56  collected and the benefits accruing to the new residential or
   57  commercial construction.
   58         (h) The local government must specifically earmark funds
   59  collected pursuant to the impact fees for use in acquiring,
   60  constructing, or improving capital facilities to benefit the new
   61  users.
   62         (i) The collection or expenditure of the impact fee
   63  revenues may not be used, in whole or part, to pay existing debt
   64  or be used for prior approved projects unless the expenditure is
   65  reasonably connected to, or has a rational nexus with, the
   66  increased impact generated by the new residential or commercial
   67  construction.
   68         (4) Audits of financial statements of local governmental
   69  entities and district school boards which are performed by a
   70  certified public accountant pursuant to s. 218.39 and submitted
   71  to the Auditor General must include an affidavit signed by the
   72  chief financial officer of the local governmental entity or
   73  district school board stating that the local governmental entity
   74  or district school board has complied with this section.
   75         (5) In any action challenging an impact fee, the government
   76  has the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence
   77  that the imposition or amount of the fee meets the requirements
   78  of state legal precedent or this section. The court may not use
   79  a deferential standard.
   80         (6) This section does not apply to water and sewer
   81  connection fees.
   82         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2018.