Florida Senate - 2021                        COMMITTEE AMENDMENT
       Bill No. CS for CS for SB 750
       
       
       
       
       
       
                                Ì783100`Î783100                         
       
                              LEGISLATIVE ACTION                        
                    Senate             .             House              
                  Comm: RCS            .                                
                  04/16/2021           .                                
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       The Committee on Appropriations (Gruters) recommended the
       following:
       
    1         Senate Amendment (with title amendment)
    2  
    3         Delete lines 19 - 177
    4  and insert:
    5         Section 1. Section 163.31801, Florida Statutes, is amended
    6  to read:
    7         163.31801 Impact fees; short title; intent; minimum
    8  requirements; audits; challenges.—
    9         (1) This section may be cited as the “Florida Impact Fee
   10  Act.”
   11         (2) The Legislature finds that impact fees are an important
   12  source of revenue for a local government to use in funding the
   13  infrastructure necessitated by new growth. The Legislature
   14  further finds that impact fees are an outgrowth of the home rule
   15  power of a local government to provide certain services within
   16  its jurisdiction. Due to the growth of impact fee collections
   17  and local governments’ reliance on impact fees, it is the intent
   18  of the Legislature to ensure that, when a county or municipality
   19  adopts an impact fee by ordinance or a special district adopts
   20  an impact fee by resolution, the governing authority complies
   21  with this section.
   22         (3) For purposes of this section, the term:
   23         (a) “Infrastructure” means a fixed capital expenditure or
   24  fixed capital outlay, excluding the cost of repairs or
   25  maintenance, associated with the construction, reconstruction,
   26  or improvement of public facilities that have a life expectancy
   27  of at least 5 years; related land acquisition, land improvement,
   28  design, engineering, and permitting costs; and other related
   29  construction costs required to bring the public facility into
   30  service. The term also includes a fire department vehicle, an
   31  emergency medical service vehicle, a sheriff’s office vehicle, a
   32  police department vehicle, a school bus as defined in s.
   33  1006.25, and the equipment necessary to outfit the vehicle or
   34  bus for its official use. For independent special fire control
   35  districts, the term “infrastructure” includes new facilities as
   36  defined in s. 191.009(4).
   37         (b) “Public facilities” has the same meaning as in s.
   38  163.3164 and includes emergency medical, fire, and law
   39  enforcement facilities.
   40         (4)(3) At a minimum, each local government that adopts and
   41  collects an impact fee by ordinance and each special district
   42  that adopts, collects, and administers an impact fee by
   43  resolution must an impact fee adopted by ordinance of a county
   44  or municipality or by resolution of a special district must
   45  satisfy all of the following conditions:
   46         (a) Ensure that the calculation of the impact fee is must
   47  be based on the most recent and localized data.
   48         (b) The local government must Provide for accounting and
   49  reporting of impact fee collections and expenditures and. If a
   50  local governmental entity imposes an impact fee to address its
   51  infrastructure needs, the entity must account for the revenues
   52  and expenditures of such impact fee in a separate accounting
   53  fund.
   54         (c) Limit administrative charges for the collection of
   55  impact fees must be limited to actual costs.
   56         (d) The local government must Provide notice at least not
   57  less than 90 days before the effective date of an ordinance or
   58  resolution imposing a new or increased impact fee. A local
   59  government county or municipality is not required to wait 90
   60  days to decrease, suspend, or eliminate an impact fee. Unless
   61  the result is to reduce the total mitigation costs or impact
   62  fees imposed on an applicant, new or increased impact fees may
   63  not apply to current or pending permit applications submitted
   64  before the effective date of an ordinance or resolution imposing
   65  a new or increased impact fee.
   66         (e) Ensure that collection of the impact fee may not be
   67  required to occur earlier than the date of issuance of the
   68  building permit for the property that is subject to the fee.
   69         (f) Ensure that the impact fee is must be proportional and
   70  reasonably connected to, or has have a rational nexus with, the
   71  need for additional capital facilities and the increased impact
   72  generated by the new residential or commercial construction.
   73         (g) Ensure that the impact fee is must be proportional and
   74  reasonably connected to, or has have a rational nexus with, the
   75  expenditures of the funds collected and the benefits accruing to
   76  the new residential or nonresidential construction.
   77         (h) The local government must Specifically earmark funds
   78  collected under the impact fee for use in acquiring,
   79  constructing, or improving capital facilities to benefit new
   80  users.
   81         (i) Ensure that revenues generated by the impact fee are
   82  may not be used, in whole or in part, to pay existing debt or
   83  for previously approved projects unless the expenditure is
   84  reasonably connected to, or has a rational nexus with, the
   85  increased impact generated by the new residential or
   86  nonresidential construction.
   87         (5)(a)(4) Notwithstanding any charter provision,
   88  comprehensive plan policy, ordinance, development order,
   89  development permit, or resolution, the local government or
   90  special district must credit against the collection of the
   91  impact fee any contribution, whether identified in a
   92  proportionate share agreement or other form of exaction, related
   93  to public education facilities or infrastructure, including land
   94  dedication, site planning and design, or construction. Any
   95  contribution must be applied on a dollar-for-dollar basis at
   96  fair market value to reduce any education-based impact fee
   97  collected for the general category or class of public facilities
   98  or infrastructure for which the contribution was made fees on a
   99  dollar-for-dollar basis at fair market value.
  100         (b)If a local government or special district does not
  101  charge and collect an impact fee for the general category or
  102  class of public facilities or infrastructure contributed, a
  103  credit may not be applied under paragraph (a).
  104         (6)(5)A local government, school district, or special
  105  district may increase an impact fee only as provided in this
  106  subsection.
  107         (a) An impact fee may be increased only pursuant to a plan
  108  for the imposition, collection, and use of the increased impact
  109  fees which complies with this section.
  110         (b) An increase to a current impact fee rate of not more
  111  than 25 percent of the current rate must be implemented in two
  112  equal annual increments beginning with the date on which the
  113  increased fee is adopted.
  114         (c) An increase to a current impact fee rate which exceeds
  115  25 percent but is not more than 50 percent of the current rate
  116  must be implemented in four equal installments beginning with
  117  the date the increased fee is adopted.
  118         (d) An impact fee increase may not exceed 50 percent of the
  119  current impact fee rate.
  120         (e) An impact fee may not be increased more than once every
  121  4 years.
  122         (f) An impact fee may not be increased retroactively for a
  123  previous or current fiscal or calendar year.
  124         (g)A local government, school district, or special
  125  district may increase an impact fee rate beyond the phase-in
  126  limitations established under paragraph (b), paragraph (c),
  127  paragraph (d), or paragraph (e) by establishing the need for
  128  such increase in full compliance with the requirements of
  129  subsection (4), provided the following criteria are met:
  130         1.A demonstrated-need study justifying any increase in
  131  excess of paragraph (b), paragraph (c), paragraph (d), or
  132  paragraph (e) has been completed within the 12 months prior to
  133  the adoption of the impact fee increase and expressly
  134  demonstrates the extraordinary circumstances necessitating the
  135  need to exceed the phase-in limitations;
  136         2.The local government jurisdiction has held no less than
  137  two publicly-noticed workshops dedicated to the extraordinary
  138  circumstances necessitating the need to exceed the phase-in
  139  limitations of paragraph (b), paragraph (c), paragraph (d), or
  140  paragraph (e); and
  141         3.The impact fee increase ordinance is approved by no less
  142  than a two-thirds vote of the governing body.
  143         (h)This subsection shall operate retroactively to January
  144  1, 2021.
  145         (7) If an impact fee is increased a local government
  146  increases its impact fee rates, the holder of any impact fee
  147  credits, whether such credits are granted under s. 163.3180, s.
  148  380.06, or otherwise, which were in existence before the
  149  increase, is entitled to the full benefit of the intensity or
  150  density prepaid by the credit balance as of the date it was
  151  first established. This subsection shall operate prospectively
  152  and not retrospectively.
  153         (8)(6)A local government, school district, or special
  154  district must submit with its annual financial report required
  155  under s. 218.32 or its financial audit report required under s.
  156  218.39 a separate affidavit signed by its chief financial
  157  officer or, if there is no chief financial officer, its
  158  executive officer attesting, to the best of his or her
  159  knowledge, that all impact fees were collected and expended by
  160  the local government, school district, or special district, or
  161  were collected and expended on its behalf, in full compliance
  162  with the spending period provision in the local ordinance or
  163  resolution, and that funds expended from each impact fee account
  164  were used only to acquire, construct, or improve specific
  165  infrastructure needs as defined in this section Audits of
  166  financial statements of local governmental entities and district
  167  school boards which are performed by a certified public
  168  accountant pursuant to s. 218.39 and submitted to the Auditor
  169  General must include an affidavit signed by the chief financial
  170  officer of the local governmental entity or district school
  171  board stating that the local governmental entity or district
  172  school board has complied with this section.
  173         (9)(7) In any action challenging an impact fee or the
  174  government’s failure to provide required dollar-for-dollar
  175  credits for the payment of impact fees as provided in s.
  176  163.3180(6)(h)2.b., the government has the burden of proving by
  177  a preponderance of the evidence that the imposition or amount of
  178  the fee or credit meets the requirements of state legal
  179  precedent and this section. The court may not use a deferential
  180  standard for the benefit of the government.
  181         (10)(8) Impact fee credits are assignable and transferable
  182  at any time after establishment from one development or parcel
  183  to any other that is within the same impact fee zone or impact
  184  fee district or that is within an adjoining impact fee zone or
  185  impact fee district within the same local government
  186  jurisdiction and which receives benefits from the improvement or
  187  contribution that generated the credits. This subsection applies
  188  to all impact fee credits regardless of whether the credits were
  189  established before or after the effective date of this act.
  190         (11)(9) A county, municipality, or special district may
  191  provide an exception or waiver for an impact fee for the
  192  development or construction of housing that is affordable, as
  193  defined in s. 420.9071. If a county, municipality, or special
  194  district provides such an exception or waiver, it is not
  195  required to use any revenues to offset the impact.
  196         (12)(10) This section does not apply to water and sewer
  197  connection fees.
  198         (13)(11) In addition to the items that must be reported in
  199  the annual financial reports under s. 218.32, a local
  200  government, school district county, municipality, or special
  201  district must report all of the following information data on
  202  all impact fees charged:
  203         (a) The specific purpose of the impact fee, including the
  204  specific infrastructure needs to be met, including, but not
  205  limited to, transportation, parks, water, sewer, and schools.
  206         (b) The impact fee schedule policy describing the method of
  207  calculating impact fees, such as flat fees, tiered scales based
  208  on number of bedrooms, or tiered scales based on square footage.
  209         (c) The amount assessed for each purpose and for each type
  210  of dwelling.
  211         (d) The total amount of impact fees charged by type of
  212  dwelling.
  213         (e) Each exception and waiver provided for construction or
  214  development of housing that is affordable.
  215         Section 2. The Division of Law Revision is directed to
  216  replace the phrase “the effective date of this act” wherever it
  217  occurs in this act with the date the act becomes a law.
  218  
  219  ================= T I T L E  A M E N D M E N T ================
  220  And the title is amended as follows:
  221         Delete lines 6 - 14
  222  and insert:
  223         fees any contribution related to public facilities or
  224         infrastructure; providing conditions under which
  225         credits may not be applied; providing limitations on
  226         impact fee increases; providing for retroactive
  227         operation; requiring specified entities to submit an
  228         affidavit attesting that impact fees were
  229         appropriately collected and expended; providing for
  230         retroactive applicability; requiring school districts
  231         to report specified information regarding impact fees;
  232         providing a directive to the Division of Law Revision;
  233         providing